Six in the Morning

1. RIOT POLICE CALLED IN TO ONTARIO TAMIL PROTESTS: Riot police stand guard around noon protests by Tamil protesters in Toronto. Rabble.ca reporter catches signs of police agression on his flip camera. (Globe and Mail, rabble.ca)

2. ENVIRONMENTALISTS CHEER BC LIBERAL WIN: Last night, Carbon Tax Campbell won his third mandate. (DeSmog Blog)

3. TORY ATTACK ADS ATTACK ATTACK ADS: The Tories' first wave of anti-Ignatieff ads have been launched on YouTube. They take aim at Iggy's years out of the country and his party's deployment of internet-based, anti-Tory ads. (Globe and Mail)

4. WASN'T EXPECTING THAT: Pope goes to Bethlehem and calls for a Palestinian homeland. (Guardian)

5. PALIN WRITES: In an effort to keep Tina Fey's impersonation relevant, erstwhile VP candidate, Sarah Palin, is planning to put her "journalism degree" to good use and publish her memoirs. (Guardian)

6. DOWNTOWN PLAN POSTPONED, P-DOG WRITER HAS FREE WEDNESDAY NIGHT: Occasional Prairie Dog writer, Paul Dechene, complained about the city's decision to postpone its Downtown Plan discussion to a later date. (As previously reported on the DogBlog.)

"Planning Commission was going to spend their monthly meeting on this thing," said Dechene. "It's huge. Over 200 pages. I'd booked off my entire Wednesday night."

"I can't say I was 'looking forward' to another night of endless planning deliberations. But I'd resigned myself to it, you know?" continued Dechene. "But now... I've got nothing to do. Want to see a movie?"

When asked what this "Downtown Plan" is all about, Dechene said, "The Prairie Dog's been covering it for a year and half now, but they don't have a website so you're SOL on that front. Couture at the Leader Post has a pretty good summary on their site today. Try that. Because good luck finding the effing thing on the city's website. The Plan's been out for six days now and it hasn't made their front page. They've got it buried under housing or some [expletive]." (Leader Post, City of Regina)

Rosebud Burlesque Acadamy comes to town

Headmistress Cheripop Purr* of the Saskatoon-based Rosebud Burlesque Academy is coming to Regina on June 13, to teach an intensive burlesque workshop. If you've ever wanted to give the art of classy, retro striptease a try, you should totally sign up. Headmistress Purr is an amazing teacher; even if you've never thought of yourself as a "dancer" she'll make you feel confident and you'll have a blast.

You can register online for the workshop at www.ascherarose.com (Home of local belly dancing classes) and check out the Rosebud Academy's other shows and classes at their homepage.

* Otherwise known as the awesome choreographer and dance teacher Jackie Latendresse.

Posted While Waiting For Dechene

I'm sitting at my desk not working and waiting for one of two things--either a call from prairie dog City Hall and video game reporter Paul Dechene to get together for a late breakfast "meeting" (i.e. thinly-justified excuse to skip out of work and eat food) or at least the Six In The Morning news post he's supposed to do today.

(tap, tap, tap, tap...)

Breakfast is probably out because freelance writers don't like leaving their homes in the middle of winter (why was it snowing this morning?). And I guess this procrastinating editor will just have to be patient and take that 6ITM post when it's ready.

So in the meantime I'll just be sitting here reading this horrible, horrible column by Salon columnist Glenn Greenwald on the Obama (not Bush!) administration's suppression of evidence of the extreme torture inflicted on former Guantanamo prisoner Binyam Mohammed. Yeah, just when you think it's bad some jerk working in the news media has to go and type the phrase "genital slicing".