Raise the Hammer

I wish I could say that I am socked by all of this. But it strikes me as more of the same rotten behaviour that has been a Hamilton hallmark for the last 50 years.

"Socked"?

I'm sandalized. ;)

D'o!

I will agree with this one. The city staff has gotten away with too much crap for far too long. Contrary to popular belief, council isn't responsible for many of the debacles that have hit Hamilton over the last few years.

Unfortuneately this is just more of the same old. The City Manager has his own agenda (not sure what it is), you can see this in the way the Stadium debacle rolled out. If you go back over the process there was definitely a bias in his presentations to council. This continued with LRT, who knows how deep this runs. Its not right.

So many bad angles to this and seemingly getting worse. What happens if an army of concerned citizens don't tweet, blog and post about this?

Somebody needs to make a film or a TV show about Hamilton municipal politics. It goes without saying that it would be fascinating. There's a lot more going on behind the scenes than many of us realise...and it's been that way for decades.

Featuring

James Cromwell as Mayor Bratina
Owen Wilson as Clr McHattie
Howie Mandel as Clr Farr
R. Lee Ermey as Clr Morelli
Mark Ruffalo as Clr Merulla
Giovanni Ribisi as Clr Collins
Jason Segal as Clr Jackson
John Goodman as Clr Clark
Melissa McCarthy as Clr Pearson
Fred Ward as Clr Pasuta
Don Rickles as Clr Powers
Kristen Wiig as Clr Johnson
Markie Post as Clr Partridge

with cameos from

Wilford Brimley as MPP McMeekin
John Hawkes as MP Christopherson
Michael Gross as McMaster president Patrick Deane
Christopher McDonald as former HECFI head Duncan Gillespie

And in the press gallery...

Stanley Tucci as Andrew Dreschel

Mary Lynn Rajskub as Emma Reilly

Paul Giamatti as Dan Nolan

and

Ed Harris as Paul Berton

"Mary Lynn Rajskub as Emma Reilly"

I was thinking Amy Poehler.

Great job with Tucci as Dreschel though.

Also starring

Clancy Brown as Clr Whitehead

Steve Zahn as Finance Manager Rob Rossini

Bob Balaban as City Manager Chris Murray

and additional cameos from

Matt Lucas as BOE Chair Tim Simmons

Donald Sutherland as Herman Turkstra

Carl Reiner as Larry DiIanni

&

Dennis Farina as Darko Vranich

Ermey has dropped out but (huzzah!) Rip Torn will be filling his shoes.

Brimley had a blow-up over the pronunciation of "diabetes" so now Ned Beatty is subbing in.

Great job with the casting! Box office hit, for sure.

Where is Peggy Chapmen in all this .. lol E

Waitwaitwaitwaitwait.... you mean Howie Mandell and Jason Farr are two different people? That's just crazy talk.

Unfortunately, we've run into a scheduling conflict with Cromwell. Ken Howard has been tapped to fill the role.

There is only one man right for the part.

http://nsb.com/media/mediamanager/photo/...

K's definitely got the look but we may have to CGI him another 5" of height, and get him a rage double (Michael Caine, maybe). K has the smarm and charm down but has limited cred on the bully pulpit.

BTW, was there a model of glasses favoured by male media types back in the day? Tom Cherington and DIck Beddoes seem to have the same frames.

Also:

Joaquin Phoenix as Matt Jelly

Bonus footage on the DVD is rumoured to include grassroots cameos from:

Paul Rudd as Ryan McGreal
Jude Law as Martinus Geleynse
Stephen Root as Graham Crawford
Kathy Griffin as Laura Babcock
Jack Black as Loren Lieberman
&
James Van Der Beek as Joey Coleman

Do I hear a casting call for characters to play councillors? Burt Reynolds as Ferguson.

http://www.thehamiltonian.net/2012/03/call-to-lead-opinion.html

Very well thought out opinion piece of which I am in total agreement.

Sorry, where's the opinion in that "opinion" piece? Seems all the Hamiltonian is saying is lots of different positions might be fair but the parties to the BoE deal should try to make a calm decision on what's for the best. Well duh. That's the easy part. The hard part is figuring out what the best decision IS and this fluff piece doesn't offer anything other than platitudes.

Glad I'm not the only one who saw through the fake 'fair and balanced' routine. Just admit you can't be bothered to do the research required to determine which position is the best one.

It's lazy and cowardly to sit back and wag your finger and say "now now children..." in a transparent attempt to portray yourself as a serious voice of reason.

Comment edited by highwater on 2012-03-08 12:03:48

It may be fair to question...... It may be fair to question whether the Board is doing what's best for them. It may be fair to question whether the City of Hamilton is doing what's best for them. It may be fair to question whether McMaster is doing what's best for them. It may be fair to question whether those who oppose elements of this plan are doing what's best for them. It may be fair to question why the Hamiltonian rarely offers an opinion on anything? In fact, it is fair to question, especially when even the Hamiltonian labels their own piece as "Opinion".

I'm all for diverse views in as many different formats and sites as possible, but asking the same questions we're all struggling to answer is not my idea of an opinion. I'm 100% OK if that opinion differs from mine, but relying solely on the Socratic method for most posts doesn't do enough to move the dialogue along, especially when I think we can all agree that this Socratic method is being employed by people who seemingly have no more expertise on the topic than do the rest of us who engage in online and/or community-based dialogue.

That's not a put down, simply a statement of fact. I guess if Socrates himself was doing the asking, I might feel more compelled to play along. Having said all of this, I think the Hamiltonian is adding to the civic dialogue because they do reach out to newsmakers. They do solicit answers from them. I take the time to read those answers. But, I would prefer a lot more analysis and a lot less transcribing. Opinions can, of course, follow both approaches. Perhaps it's just a question of personal preference.

Sweetener-related LOLZ...

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/684198--loophole-used-to-remove-bird-habitat

'Thanks to provincial subsidies, the city's total financial contribution is now pegged around $26.1 million instead of the $47 million or so that's been bandied around for months.'

Notice this tactic. The city contribution has been pegged at 20 million throughout this deal. In past versions of the deal the contribution was supposed to be 10 million. Now we're paying 26 million - but it's a HUGE SAVINGS because really we were paying 47 million.

This is dirty accounting, plain and simple.

I agree with you totally

Does anyone have any fresh theories as to how this fits into the picture?

http://www.thespec.com/news/local/article/690295--mcmaster-children-s-hospital-building-100m-treatment-centre-beside-hgh

It's definitely intriguing to think about the possibility of having two major Mac/HHS-related facilities worth around $100m per on opposite sides of downtown.