2 ROBOCALLS WERE ORGANIZED FRAUD: JUDGE Greg blogged it last night and I’m mentioning it again because I’m  annoyed that bye-elections weren’t ordered. Supposedly the scale of the fraud wasn’t significant enough. Here’s the story and here’s the actual ruling. In other robocall news, the CRTC has fined Alberta’s Wildrose Party $90,000 for breaking the robo-rules.

3 MEANWHILE IN SASKATCHEWAN We, along with three other lower population provinces,  got a “D” in health care; Regina wants federal money to clean up the dead lots once used by gas stations (context here); The police union is worried about our new labour laws and the lack of an arbitration mechanism for when contract talks break down; a police officer’s assault trial continues; and the Saskatoon Blades have been eliminated in the Memorial Cup and Saskatoon is so sad they’re banning dogs from riding in the backs of trucks.

4 MORE ARRESTS IN LONDON ATTACK Here’s the latest news on BBC and the Guardian. Also, Glenn Greenwald has a thoughtful column on the definition of terrorism here.

5 SYRIA AGREES TO ATTEND HYPOTHETICAL PEACE TALKS IN GENEVA Read all about it.

6 THIS IS WHAT AN “INFRASTRUCTURE DEFICIT” LOOKS LIKE A bridge in Washington State collapsed, dropping cars and people into the water. Fortunately no one was killed. The collapse appears to have been triggered by a Canadian trucker whose truck might have been over the weight limit but having said that, the bridge had received low scores on inspections and was rated “functionally obsolete” in 2010. Remember those infrastructure conferences in Regina? This kind of thing is why it’s important to fund infrastructure. Also, don’t drive overloaded trucks on bridges.

7 THIS SIX HAS SEVEN Hey, the Boy Scouts of America will now accept gay scouts who must GET OUT, GET, OUT, GET OUUUUUT when they become adults and would like to be scout leaders, but minimal progress is still progress.

8 EIGHT? WHY NOT? John Gormley has a slightly pompous but not insane column on the ongoing Senate scandal.

PURR Word on the street is that today’s Friday Afternoon Kitty isn’t a cat at all. But what’s a Friday without a cat? So here you go. More here. Meow!

To get everyone primed, here’s video from 2010 of Cannibal Corpse performing “Priests of Sodom”:

Mark Towhey was fired as Mayor Rob Ford’s chief of staff because he told Ford in no uncertain terms to “go away and get help,” a source close to the mayor’s office has told CBC News. Towhey was unceremoniously dumped from his job Thursday in the midst of a scandal that has ripped apart Toronto municipal politics — with the city’s colourful mayor caught in the midst of allegations that he was recorded smoking crack cocaine. The story broke last week and shortly after Towhey faced down the mayor telling him he needed help. ”There’s nothing more I can do for you,” the source quoted Towhey as telling Ford. The chief of staff then told Ford to “go away and get help.”

Story here. I hope Ford resigns soon. This is painful.

Oh, and the Rob Ford Crackstarter is at $160, 397.

“I find that electoral fraud occurred during the 41st General Election but I am not satisfied that it has been established that the fraud affected the outcomes in the subject ridings and I decline to exercise my discretion to annul the results in those districts.”

That was part of the judgement Federal Court Judge Richard Mosley delivered in the “robocalls” case in Ottawa today. The case saw select voters in six ridings, with the support of the Council of Canadians, seeking to overturn the results of the 2011 election in their ridings on the grounds of fraud tied to misleading and harassing automated and call centres calls they received that have been traced to Conservative campaign workers.

Read more about Judge Mosley’s verdict, in which he declined to overturn the results, here.

Coming via Deadspin, we have what’s probably the greatest video of the year and easily the most important soccer goal ever scored.

Quantum Black’s a particularly big challenge for her, though, because in it she plays nine or so versions of the same cloned woman (that’s one version of Sarah above). And earlier today, as other media have reported, she was nominated for a BBC America Critic’s Choice Best Actress in a Drama Award. Claire Danes, Julianna Margulies, Elizabeth Moss and Kerri Russell are the other nominated actresses. So all in all, pretty good company.

So congrats to Tatiana. And congratulations also to Weyburn-born Trenna Keating who’s become something of a sensation in the SF community for her portrayal of the alien Doc Yewll in the ScyFy series Defiance.

The Hangover foursome achieves the impossible: Makes Tijuana look dull.

Certain single words could define The Hangover Part III. “Greed” is one of them. “Laziness” is another one. This is a saga that shouldn’t exist to begin: The first film – the only half decent of the bunch- wasn’t supposed to start a franchise. It was a standalone story much like director Todd Phillips previous films (Old School, Road Trip). Only unchecked avarice could turn the paper-thin concept behind it into a trilogy.

After the pathetic Part II (which was beat-by-beat the same as Part I with a different setting), Phillips and co. put a little more effort for their third go-around. Gone are the bachelor party set-up, the noir-esque reconstruction of events and convicted rapist Mike Tyson (animal mistreatment is, however, very much present). The outcome is a complete bore, filled with people that couldn’t wait to get out of their contracts.

Following the death of his father, an increasingly unhinged Alan (Zach Galifianakis) is convinced by the rest of the Wolfpack (Bradley Cooper, Ed Helms and Justin Bartha) to enter a psychiatric treatment center. On their way to the facility, the group is intercepted by a gangster (John Goodman) with a beef with the obnoxious criminal Mr. Chow (Ken Jeong). The Mafioso believes the Wolfpack can smoke him out, or the perennially sidelined Doug will pay.

Early in the movie, while pursuing Mr. Chow, the Wolfpack lands in Tijuana. Extreme debauchery, you say? No, just Ken Jeong massacring Johnny Cash’s “Hurt”. As inconsistent as The Hangover movies have been, this is the first time boredom rears its ugly head. Alan, once the heart of the franchise, is now an off-putting presence (the decapitation of a giraffe makes harder to root for this alleged hero).

None of the leads seem to care enough to put a performance (Cooper particularly, now believed a serious actor). Since the material is not quite inspirational, it’s hard to blame them. Mike Epps and Heather Graham are brought back into the fold just to pretend the trilogy was the plan all along (a la Lost), but all they do is remind us how much better the first movie was.

Inspired by Heart of Darkness (Vegas is a stand-in for the jungle and Chow is supposed to be Kurtz), Part III lacks the ambition to follow through. If anything, the film puts in evidence the shortcomings of all the involved. In the case of Todd Phillips, these limitations are vast.

One prairie dog with a major headache.