I was initially sceptical of the “But look at facebook” polling, but given there are 177,000 people in the facebook group for Canadians Against Prorogue, and that 58% (of the 67% who are aware of it) are against prorogue, it’s clear there’s generally large opposition to the motion. It would be nice to think that this could be the kind of event that would politicize a generation, awoken by a cynical act in such a pure anti-democratic spirit. It would be nice to see this play out in a meaningful way, to see the Conservatives branded as the big party that wouldn’t. Given polling on where the parties stand, I’m guessing it will pass with too much effect.

Harper will soon appoint new senators to give the Conservatives a plurality, if not a majority, in the Senate.

The original plan was basically to cap terms as a first step to abolishing the whole thing. Since he couldn’t get that accomplished, Harper said “Fine, y’all can go fuck yourselves” and made a bunch of appointments.

That’s not so much hypocritical as it is highlighting problems by creating those problems yourself.

But Harper could soon have a majority in the Senate. And he could have one in the House, depending on how things go in the next six months. If he gets both, and then doesn’t move on Senate reform, at that point he’d have some serious explaining to do. Though at that point, maybe that means there won’t be enough people caring to demand it.

The CBC image of the prorogation notice was 7:08pm.

The article at canada.com is from 8:06pm.

This blog post from the Prime Minister’s Office is from 4:23pm (according to the timestamp on my Google Reader):

Prime Minister Stephen Harper today announced that the second and final phase of Canada’s Economic Action plan will be launched following the Olympic Games with a new Throne Speech on March 3 and a federal Budget on March 4.

“Our priority in the new session of Parliament will continue to be rapid and effective implementation of Canada’s Economic Action Plan to benefit communities, workers and businesses,” the Prime Minister said. “At the same time, we are already looking ahead to future challenges. These include restoring a balanced budget once our economy is fully recovered and building a strong foundation for our economic future.”

Almost a year ago – in the face of the deepest worldwide recession since the Second World War – the Government of Canada responded to extraordinary times with extraordinary action. It introduced Canada’s Economic Action Plan, which included one of the most comprehensive stimulus packages in the industrialized world.

“While we see tentative, early signs that the economy is emerging from recession, the recovery is still fragile,” Prime Minister Harper said. “Now is no time to change course. In fact, we must press on with the second year of Canada’s Economic Action Plan.

“Our plan remains helping those who need it now, stimulating new job growth, protecting existing jobs and ensuring that our economy emerges from the recession in a stronger position than it entered it.”

The irony of the first two paragraphs is overwhelming.

Well it’s apparently official. Parliament’s been prorogued until March 3, 2010. Two months (and a bit) without governing.

Throughout the day there was no shortage of good reactions to the possibility of prorogation and a few of the potential effects.

Given the notably scarce conservative reaction, it struck me that this whole prorogation thing was just an idea being floated, to see the response, to see how it would play politically. Would it hurt among supporters would be the main question, since the non-supporters aren’t likely to be brought over anyhow. It seems the answer to that would be negative, given the assbackwards conclusion-first reasoning of some of the popular party dullards.

And here we are.

Does this happen elsewhere? Is this a surprisingly common thing in parliamentary democracies? I’m asking seriously, because I don’t know. But what I do know is that wherever it happens, it’s completely fucking ridiculous and seems the kind of thing we should be taking to the Ottawa streets over, though of course those of us who feel that way are also (as I’m sure the Conservatives figured) the people who have a general sense that being governed by nobody at all might be better than being governed by Harper.

Well, mark your calendars, enjoy the Olympics, and remember on March 3rd that Harper has to stop ignoring parliament, stop making us look ridiculous on climate change, and create 265,000 jobs. And that he’s just had a two month vacation and is a douchebag.

Of 200 nominations from the Obama white house, 75 were being held up.

A few have gotten through.

One of those finally approved was Miriam Sapiro, who had become the Obama administration’s prime example of stalled nominations since being chosen in April to be a deputy United States trade representative. Senator Jim Bunning, Republican of Kentucky, put a hold on the confirmation of Ms. Sapiro, an Internet policy consultant, to try to pressure the trade representative’s office to file a complaint with the World Trade Organization against Canada over a law that bans cigarettes with candy flavors.

Makes sense to me. Canadian policy seems so obviously backwards on this. How are you supposed to market cigarettes to children without fun mascots and familiar flavours?

It’s obviously wrong to assume that giving lots of people a position of power and a weapon that’s supposed to be less harmful will not lead to some of those people abusing that power and weapon (especially in cities named Ozark for some reason).

The thing with tasers, it’s easy to find and read about and watch examples of bad use (even when it’s against a jackass).

And those episodes have implications (from Visioncritical via TheHook). Apparently confidence in the RCMP has dropped significantly in BC (where the RCMP is going to have a responsibility with the Olympics) since the tasering and death of Robert Dziekanski.

When a single weapon can discredit a major security force responsible for safeguarding the very people who no longer trust it due to the use of that weapon, that in itself is an important reason to consider the review of that weapon.

I can see how it’s a useful tool to have, but it’s a problem that it’s seen as something much more minor than taking out a gun.

(It doesn’t seem necessary to describe Robert Dziekanski and “Polish immigrant Robert Dziekanski.” Would we otherwise be confusing him with some other well-known Robert Dziekanski I don’t know of?)

This is terrible (via Paul Wells):

The people of Switzerland, whose country contains four minarets, vote in a referendum to ban the construction of any more. Apparently the women’s vote had much to do with it.

From the article regarding women supporting the ban:

A right-wing campaign to outlaw minarets on mosques in a referendum being held in Switzerland today has received an unlikely boost from radical feminists arguing that the tower-like structures are “male power symbols” and reminders of Islam’s oppression of women.

Also this gem:

“If we give them a minaret, they’ll have us all wearing burqas,” said Julia Werner, a local housewife. “Before you know it, we’ll have sharia law and women being stoned to death in our streets. We won’t be Swiss any more.”

Oh god. The Swiss. We’re doomed.

Why were all the vehicles in Mad Max gas guzzlers? Is the idea that before the world more or less ended there wasn’t a single gas sipping car available? Still, once everything went to crap, wouldn’t have somebody have figured out a way to run on biodiesel, like Doc with the flux capacitor? Or was the whole situation unique to Australia and the rest of the world was still doing ok?

In any case, prepare for it. Practice your screams. You’ll want to make sure to have a good “Help I’m being ravaged by racists” scream and a good “Why can’t I bring myself to end it, fuck it I’ll just scream into the godless sky” scream.

It’s probably true that most astro-wealthy people mostly just want to hold onto their money.

Some of the decent rich people out there should put some of that charitable goodness towards establishing independent media organizations, and not necessarily limited to any one specific country.