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Tag: politician

  • Rob Ford: Toronto’s Most Notorious And Most Beloved Mayor Succumbs To Cancer At 46

    Rob Ford: Toronto’s Most Notorious And Most Beloved Mayor Succumbs To Cancer At 46

    Former Toronto mayor Rob Ford, who was often ridiculed for his unique political style and brash attitude, succumbed to cancer at age 46. Ford died on Tuesday after an 18-month battle with pleomorphic liposarcoma, an aggressive type of cancer.

    “With heavy hearts and profound sadness, the Ford family announces the passing of their beloved son, brother, husband and father,” his bereaved family said in a statement. “A dedicated man of the people, Councillor Ford spent his life serving the citizens of Toronto.”

    He was first diagnosed with liposarcoma in 2014 while running for a reelection which caused him to drop out of the race. Instead, he ran for councilor in Ward 2 Etobicoke North, winning it by a landslide. Ford declared he was cancer free in September but was hospitalized again in October after two new tumors had been found in his bladder.

    Rob Ford gained popularity among the masses for his unpretentious leadership style. However, he repeatedly found himself in numerous scandals involving drugs, threats of violence and alcohol. After a video showing Ford smoking crack cocaine in his office surfaced in 2014, the former Toronto mayor faced his addiction and said he was entering rehab. Video footage and photographs showing Ford intoxicated in public also emerged.

    Despite the scandals about him, Rob Ford was loved by many. Thousands of supporters have shared their prayers for his recovery on a website set up by his family during his battle with cancer.

    Toronto mayor John Tory paid tribute to the late politician saying, “His time in City Hall included moments of kindness, of generosity to his council colleagues and real efforts to do what he thought was best for Toronto.”

    Rob Ford’s brother, Doug Ford, also expressed his sadness on his demise: “My heart is ripped out. I loved Rob so much, I took care of him and protected him from the day he was born. I miss him so much. He was my best friend.”

  • Wendy Davis, Texas State Senator, Reveals Details Of Her Gritty Life In Memoir

    Texas State Senator Wendy Davis reveals the details of her gritty and sometimes unhappy life growing up in her new memoir, Forgetting to be Afraid.

    In the book, Davis writes about her experiences growing up, including a very personal story of how her mother once tried to kill herself and her children, including Davis, while battling depression after her divorce.

    Davis recounts how her mother, then in her 20s, put Davis and her siblings in the trunk of her car and planned to start the car in the closed garage. In an interview with Good Morning America co-anchor Robin Roberts, Davis said they were saved by a chance visit by a neighbor who came over before her mother could act.

    Davis, who was still an infant at the time of this suicide attempt with no recollections of the incident at all, said she has forgiven her mother for the incident completely.

    “My mother shared that story with us I think so that we would better understand her,” Davis said. “I think she wanted us to see in her that she was able to overcome a great deal of struggle in order to do what she had to do for us. Every day of our lives, my mother did what she needed to do for her four children. She truly did.”

    The book also tells of Davis’ childhood, growing up under dire financial straits that had her working at a very young age. In her junior year of high school, she moved in with an older boy and was soon pregnant with her first child. It was only when a nurse at the medical clinic where she worked handed her a course brochure from the local community college that Davis’ life started to take a different path.

    “I started looking through it and decided that maybe I could try to become a paralegal,” she said. “So while working a full-time job, and a part-time job waiting tables at my father’s dinner theater at night, I also enrolled in paralegal courses.” This decision would be the start of the journey that would take her to Harvard Law School and eventually, to her current candidacy for governor of Texas under the Democratic Party.

  • Marion Barry Racks Up Two Years’ Worth Of Traffic Tickets, Fined $2,824

    On Saturday night, August 2, 78-year-old D.C. Council member Marion Barry was involved in a wrong-way crash that sent him to the hospital and had authorities impound his car for unpaid traffic tickets dating from 2012. Barry is a diabetic and reportedly experienced a “hypoglycemic attack” before becoming disoriented and driving into oncoming traffic.

    He was cited by the police for driving on the wrong side of the street, driving an unregistered vehicle and failure to have insurance. The person riding in the vehicle he hit complained of neck pain and was also sent to the hospital.

    After the crash, it was found that Barry had $2,824 in fines on his 2002 Jaguar, which denotes two years’ worth of traffic violations. What’s amazing is that the Jaguar had never been booted in those two years when boot crews are required to do so with just two outstanding tickets over 60 days old. A spokesperson for the Department of Motor Vehicles said that it’s possible that Barry’s car had not been booted earlier because all of the tickets were issued beyond the official working hours of boot crews, which are from 6 AM to 2:30 PM.

    Barry’s tickets cover an assortment of traffic offenses, including failure to display current tags, speeding and illegal parking. The oldest ticket dates back to February 12, while the most recent one was issued Thursday, July 31 for parking too close to a fire hydrant.

    Some have noted that ordinary citizens wouldn’t have gotten off the hook as easily as the D.C. Council member did. However, Barry’s vehicle was finally impounded, and by Tuesday, all his outstanding tickets had been paid. In order to retrieve his car from the compound, Barry will also have to ensure that vehicle registration and tags for his 2002 Jaguar are up to date.

    Image via Wikimedia Commons

  • Marion Barry: Former D.C. Mayor Released From Hospital

    Marion Barry, the former mayor of the District of Columbia and councilman since 2005, has been released from a physical rehabilitation facility where he spent 16 days regaining his mobility and receiving treatment for blood and urinary tract infections resulting from diabetes. The councilman has had two other hospitalizations this year; his most recent stay was in the Medstar National Rehabilitation Network.

    He was released on Wednesday, a day before his 78th birthday. Before he was discharged, he jokingly said to reporters, “I’m the most popular elected official in the city.” He was certainly in good spirits, and he said that he is determined to serve out the remainder of his term as councilman, which expires in 2016.

    He stated that his health condition was not as severe as some had made it out to be. However, he will be putting his health “at the top of the agenda,” and taking more time to care for himself.

    Barry admits he had been preoccupied with taking care of everyone else and helping others that he had neglected to look after his own health. He represents Ward 8 on the D.C. Council, and is now on his third consecutive term. The area has been known to be the city’s most impoverished.

    The former mayor is gearing himself up for weeks of physical therapy, but he is up to the challenge. He also mentioned that he had managed to climb a flight of stairs successfully, and that he is a fighter. “I guess God gave me a certain amount of courage,” he said.

    In 2009, Barry was hospitalized for kidney failure and he underwent an organ transplant. Aside from having diabetes, he is a prostate cancer survivor. He is a controversial figure, being known for his alcohol addiction and drug abuse, among other scandals. He had also been arrested in 1990 for cocaine use during his third term as mayor, and was sentenced to six months in prison.

    Marion Barry Has Nine Lives

    Image via YouTube

  • Game of Thrones Actress Part of Russian Campaign

    Emilia Clarke is part of a political campaign to increase perceptions of safety in the Russian city of Yekaterinburg, unbeknownst to the famous Game of Thrones actress and to great disgust for fans of the hit series. Yakov Silin, who is running for mayor of Yekaterinburg, used the image of the Mother of Dragons, which is one of the many titles for her character in the popular television show.

    On the politician’s Facebook page he labeled the photo as belonging to a twenty-four-year-old adult woman with the name of Anya and even attached a quote supposedly belonging to the young hypothetical female resident that read, “I suddenly noticed that I haven’t been afraid to take walks around Yekaterinburg at night the last couple of years. It’s so wonderful: few people around, the street lamps alight, the fresh air. It’s incredibly beautiful, especially after the rain.”

    Outrage over the inaccuracy of the image led to a repulsed outpouring from a strong following of the show, prompting the following statement from Yakov Silin’s campaign team, “We assure you that Daenerys Targaryen is just a beautiful woman here. We don’t aspire to her support, but we wouldn’t be ashamed to show her around Yekaterinburg.”

    When the overall purpose is for a good cause, is there justification for using celebrity photos without forthright, open consent from the actual party in question? The photo was included in a campaign to promote young girls feeling comfortable in the city during the evening hours to carry on with social agendas without fear of rape or other brutal criminal activities. This sounds like a positive purpose, right? However, posting without making Emilia Clarke aware, not-so-positive. While Emilia Clarke hasn’t released a statement indicating her feelings about the photograph, fans have taken up the torch to voice their concerns about using the image.

  • Reverse Robocall Site Allows You To Get Revenge Against Politicians

    There’s really no time of the year quite like election season. It’s when we really get to see the best in everyone, specifically our politicians. We all know of the television commercials, where political opponents paint the other as someone who’s out to take your money and/or job. One strategy which is a staple of campaigning is the robocall.

    Robocalls are when a pre-recorded message is created and sent out to a large assortment of phones, using an autodialer. This tactic is generally associated with politicians who are looking to reach the greatest number of people. Because nothing sells your message like a robotic sounding telephone recording.

    If you’ve ever received one of these messages, you know it can be irritating. It’s hard to get revenge, like Seinfeld was able to pull off with an actual person trying to sell him something.

    However, there’s now a way to send your own robocall back to these politicians. It’s called the ‘Reverse Robocall‘. If you don’t mind spending a bit of money, and taking a few seconds to record a message then you can give them a taste of their own medicine.

    The premise is quite simple. When you visit the website you’re given a large assortment of politicians, each of which you can send your own pre-recorded message to. Want to give the candidates in the upcoming presidential election a piece of your mind, but don’t want to actually talk to them, you can easily do it. For more detailed instructions, here’s an official video from ReverseRobocall.com.

    The site was created by privacy activists Shaun Dakin and Aaron Titus. The idea came about due to Titus receiving a robocall at 4:30 am from his child’s school district. They’re also trying to build awareness for a piece of legislation titled ‘Mobile Informational Call Act of 2011 (HR 3035)‘, which will “amend the Communications Act of 1934 to permit informational calls to mobile telephone numbers, and for other purposes.“.

    Funny enough, you can send your own reverse robocall to everyone who is supporting the act.