Iowa Republican Caucuses

The dwarf has the best leading role a dwarf has ever had and plays the part really well.

1102
I doubt he’ll say it once *tonight* Gaffy.
He’s not on till Tues. 😆
Tonight we get the Russian.
http://www.levesoninquiry.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Updated-Witness-List-23-26-April-2012.pdf

Meanwhile…..Firstdog has gone all ‘educated’ and is spouting middle English at us.
Chaucer no less. 😆
http://media.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/RoostingChickens.jpg

Open government advocates accused a conservative legislative group Monday of falsely claiming tax-exempt status while doing widespread lobbying.
**************************************************

Advocacy group Common Cause said Monday it had filed an IRS complaint accusing ALEC of masquerading as a public charity. ALEC is formed as a nonprofit that brings together lawmakers and private sector organizations to develop legislation and policy.

ALEC says its work is not lobbying.

Common Cause disagrees. “It tells the IRS in its tax returns that it does no lobbying, yet it exists to pass profit-driven legislation in statehouses all over the country that benefits its corporate members,” said Bob Edgar, president of Common Cause, in a statement. “ALEC is not entitled to abuse its charitable tax status to lobby for private corporate interests, and stick the bill to the American taxpayer.”

Common Cause wants an IRS audit of ALEC’s work, penalties and the payment of back taxes.

More here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/alec-irs-complaint-common-cause_n_1445175.html

Planned Parenthood Worried It’s The Target Of New Undercover Sting,
********************************************************

A string of suspicious incidents at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country has given the organization reason to believe that anti-abortion activists are targeting it in a new organized sting operation.

According to Planned Parenthood spokesperson Chloe Cooney, clinics in at least 11 states have reported two dozen or more “hoax visits” over the past several weeks, in which a woman walks into a clinic, claims to be pregnant and asks a particular pattern of provocative questions about sex-selective abortions, such as how soon she can find out the gender of the fetus, by what means and whether she can schedule an abortion if she’s having a girl.

While patient privacy laws prohibit Planned Parenthood from offering specific details about the visits and where they occurred, Cooney told The Huffington Post that the incidents are so unusual and so similar to each other that they have raised concerns among the organization’s executives that the visits are being recorded as part of a concerted anti-Planned Parenthood campaign.

“For years opponents of reproductive health and Planned Parenthood have engaged in secret videotaping tactics with fictitious patient scenarios and selective editing in an attempt to promote misinformation about Planned Parenthood and our services,” Cooney said. “As with the prior instances, we anticipate that once again this group, likely in coordination with a broad range of anti-abortion leaders, will soon launch a propaganda campaign with the goal of discrediting Planned Parenthood, and, ultimately, restricting women’s health.”

Tweet it guys.

More here…
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/23/planned-parenthood-live-action_n_1446527.html

You can read the full civil claim against Slipper here.

http://www.skynews.com.au/politics/pdf/NSD580.pdf

I know it’s inappropriate to demonise the alleged victim but this is a weak and imo somewhat unbelievable claim.

I don’t think I’ll ever be able to look at twitter quite the same way again.
http://media.crikey.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Twash.jpg

“Buffy the Musical” was the best piece of TV ever made! EVER!

hey KL – I well remember our conversation about your great love for the Buffy series – glad your life can be complete 🙂
will check it out and report back

1111 Katielou Its not as if its a Catholic Priest or anthying.

James Murdoch is one of the most unconvincing spinners i have ever seen.

He just reeks of untruthfulness.

If any Murdoch hack ever has the nerve to accuse a politician or one of their other targets/victims of spinning/lieing , that person should just look them straight in the face and say “am i James Murdoch standard?”.

The Best of Tyrion Lannister – Game of Thrones.
.
The “Imp” or Dwarf Outstanding performance.
.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-FFW0JdgRLo

Chris B – Slipper is an Anglican priest.

There’s much that seems ugly about this whole business. But Ashby being harassed? I don’t believe it. The texts look like unremarkable banter between gay men. Ashby told Slipper he was gay on their first meeting ffs – he’s a guy who is used to talking openly about sexual matters – and this invites this sort of sexual banter in return. The conversations he alleges are normal and frankly tame in the gay community, and I can’t believe he didn’t help it along. He knew what he was doing when he stayed in Slipper’s flat.

What totally gives it away for me is him acting all innocent over the use of the term “f*ck buddy”. A 33 year old gay man who openly talks about it to someone (a Federal minister no less) he has just met? Oh please.

Slipper will be gone over the rorting of entitlements it seems. But imo the civil suit is nothing more than an opportunistic grab for money from a nasty so and so. The media and Abbott have latched on to the law suit – playing on homophobia and distaste that exists in the community for behaviour by some gay men.

I’m not supporting Slipper’s behaviour – he’s clearly been a hypocrite, and his family must be going through hell. But in the end that is none of my business, and no worse that the many heterosexual affairs that have and must go on with politicians.

To be clear, rorting, if it is proven, is another matter entirely.

1125 Katielou “Slipper will be gone over the rorting of entitlements it seems.” According to a driver on the ABC. Slipper was doing what everyone does. It helps speed things up.

Excellent Nick Davies piece on the dangers to the Cameron government from the latest evidence at Leveson.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/apr/24/leveson-inquiry-murdoch-david-cameron

“The head of the Australian Anglican Catholic Church says Speaker Peter Slipper is a “complex” man who has taken a “strong” stand on “conservative moral issues” but has another side to his character.”

well that’s one way of putting it.
Total Prick would be another 🙂

Katielou
I have read those two articles and they are very good. I did not stay up and watch Mr Jay taking off Mr Murdochs pants after the lunch adjournment.

I have read the transcript today of the afternoon sitting and he has got Jimmy the jaw to say things that i don’t realise he said or wanted to say.

Lots on twitter were saying it was very boring but mr Jay has a very good method of actually coming in the back door when they all think he is knocking on the front door. He very slyly wedged Jimmy a couple of times and got him agreeing that he was getting the heads up about where the BskyB things were going while all the time trying to hotly deny it.
I think by the time i went to bed Jimmy was up to 19 “i don’t recall” or similars.
Thats quite remarkable for a 39 year old brain in charge of a very large corrupt empire.

I think that at the select committee hearings either him or SeweRoo stated that they did not have lots of regular contact with brooks but last night Jimmy let slip that SeweRoo and Brooks were constantly in contact.
Tonight will be a constant, I had nothing to do with that i left it to others or I don’t recall from the 81 year old corrupt brain.

Looks like the fallout from Jimmys evidence last night is about to take a scalp.
Ed Milliband calling on Jeremy Hunt to resign.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9224775/Leveson-Inquiry-Jeremy-Hunt-faces-calls-to-resign-over-absolutely-illegal-News-Corp-advice.html

SeweRoo was very full of hubris last night and i am wondering if he actually realised he was giving evidence under oath even after swearing himself in. He was all over the place saying something one minute and 10 minutes later saying the exact opposite to what he had said previous.

Mr Jay did a very good job of leading him out with things he probably will wish today he had not said.

The USA is heavy in to it now as well.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2134850/Rupert-Murdoch-sends-60k-emails-US-detectives-investigating-phone-hacking.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

SeweRoo has revealed in his evidence that he met with David cameron on at least 5 occasions which Cameron has not revealed in his record of meetings. HaHa

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/leveson-inquiry/9227491/David-Camerons-five-secret-meetings-with-Rupert-Murdoch.html

1140 Is that Mike’s brother?

This is an excellent article about how Bubba Clinton is such a powerful campaingner for the Dems. He just wins for them.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/the-fix/post/bill-clinton-the-best-surrogate-in-the-country/2012/04/25/gIQAmLc0hT_blog.html

Read Laura Tingle today. Without stating it definitively, she leaves the impression that the Slipper thing could well be a complete set up by the Libs. I find this whole mess just so awful. I can barely read anything about it.

http://www.afr.com/p/opinion/no_one_stays_clean_in_mud_fight_SrX4XX5iHHo8QrXj3oFiGN

KatieLou – I would be surprised not one iota to find that the Libs were behind the Slipper fiasco… however that does not exonerate Labor for elevating a known non-performing politician of dubious reputation to the position of Speaker.
Typical self-interest over doing the right thing – and once again it backfires.
If this Government started to show some integrity instead of populism and power at the expense of all else they would be in a much different position to the one they are in now . Elevating Slipper to Speaker was another example of this.

Jen @ 1147

Agree 100% Jen. The whole thing is a dreadful mess.

I’ve recorded Obama on Fallon but haven’t watched it yet. I’ll catch it tonight after work. Man, when Australian politics is in the gutter, I can always drool over the current POTUS. Yummo.

Have to disagree. Whatever the faults of Slipper outside parliament, he has made a very good Speaker. All this prejudging is the sickening bit. The bloke was elected as a representative of his electorate, and that is how he should be treated. Do we really need to go down the route of US politics where any indiscretion is a bar to public office?

(On a related note, I’m also against the law that precludes those with criminal convictions being banned from office – let the voters decide if they want to be represented by a crim.)

This use of the (civil) courts is the grubby bit. Remember, Abbott has form with these tactics – against Hanson.

Regardless of what Slipper may have done, he still gets a point from me for sticking it up the LNP, and another one for being the best Speaker that I’ve ever seen in action.

Flanners –
my comments are not a criticism of his ability as Speaker – he appears to relish the task and carries it out well … after all, both sides of the House hate his guts so he doesn’t have to appease any friends. But my understanding is that he didn’t get the nickname Slippery Pete for nothing, and that is why there were raised eyebrows about a fellow with his less-than-pure reputation being made Speaker by the very party he was elected to oppose.
It’s all dodgy crap that typifies why so many people think politics is simply about who gets to hold onto power for themselves, and it undermines the real achievements Labor has made as they are once again mired down in sleazy shit.
And they brought it all on themselves.
Again. 🙁

Your assessment of his character may be correct Jen, and that’d be reason enough to not vote for him in an election. But it has nothing to do with his performance in the House.

Why is it sleazy to appoint (*) a disaffected member of the opposition to the Speakership – especially when he does it so well? [(*) I know it isn’t an appointment.] Would you be saying the same thing about the ALP if it was Bandt, Wilkie, Oakeshott or Windsor given the gong? What about Katter?

If you were condemning Slipper’s actions in dumping his party to get the position, then I’d agree with that. Just as it was hard to fault Howard when he put Colston in as President of the Senate – the blame was with Colston.

Fair enough Jen. Still, I don’t see it as unedifying as you do.

In fact, I find the appointment of a Speaker from the government benches less than satisfactory, but that is a battle long since lost.
But as soon as one side gets a majority, it’ll be back to business as usual and we won’t have to worry about the “Slipper Affair” again. 😉

Jen 1156 “dubious repute” and you expect someone better from in politics????

President Obama didn’t call out Mitt Romney by name in a speech to a women group fundraiser in Washington Friday — but he brought back the Democratic “war on women” rhetoric in such a way that made the target clear.
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In stark and often direct terms, Obama painted the GOP as anti-women, and tied the party’s positions on women’s health across the country to its likely presidential nominee.

“I’m always puzzled by this,” Obama said. “This is a party that says it prides itself on being rabidly anti-regulation. These are folks who claim to believe in freedom from government influence and meddling. But it doesn’t seem bother them when it comes to women’s health.”

Pointing to GOP governors and legislatures across the country that have passed laws requiring ultrasounds before abortions, Obama said Republicans believe “women can’t be trusted to make their own decisions.”

“It’s appalling,” Obama said, referring to a statement from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Corbett’s (R), who defended his state’s mandatory ultrasound measure by suggesting women simply “close your eyes.” “It’s offensive and it’s out of touch,” Obama said.

More here…

http://2012.talkingpointsmemo.com/2012/04/obama-aims-fight-for-women-vote-squarely-at-romney.php?ref=fpnewsfeed

Max Mosely doing his bit to rid the world of the scourge of SeweRoo.
He is offering the expense of legal aid to others who want to present evidence against the worlds greatest hacker.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/max-mosley-news-international-has-blackmailed-mps-and-others-leveson-must-hear-the-truth-7685315.html

Great article about SeweRoo and idiot sons appearance at Leveson

http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/commentators/matthew-norman/matthew-norman-as-ever-with-rupert-murdoch-we-have-an-immorality-tale-worthy-of-don-corleone-in-the-godfather-7675924.html

How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Global Taxes.
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RENO, Nev. — Apple, the world’s most profitable technology company, doesn’t design iPhones here. It doesn’t run AppleCare customer service from this city. And it doesn’t manufacture MacBooks or iPads anywhere nearby.
Yet, with a handful of employees in a small office here in Reno, Apple has done something central to its corporate strategy: it has avoided millions of dollars in taxes in California and 20 other states.

Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains.

California’s corporate tax rate is 8.84 percent. Nevada’s? Zero.

Tax the corporations!

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html?_r=1

Not for Obama Chris. It’s a state tax issue. The corporate tax rate imposed by the US government is 35%. There’s lots of stupid loopholes there too. But each state has its own tax regime as well, and that what that example is talking about.

Former BBC boss heaps dung pile on Jeremy Hunt. Bye Bye Jeremy, time to fuck off.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2012/apr/28/bbc-jeremy-hunt-murdochs-news-corporation

I’m seriously thinking there’s something to my rumour @ 1170.

As David Marr says, this poor woman Gillard is velcro. She is, and Labor is done. I have lost all hope. Labor will be creamed and will take a decade to rebuild. I will just have to look away when Abbott is PM.

Today’s Firstdog is a gem.
At times like today, black humour is esential/
http://t.co/C4f5wEmu

Rove’s Forecast Shows Obama Way Ahead.
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Karl Rove’s latest electoral vote forecast finds President Obama with 220 votes and another 64 votes which “lean Obama.” Mitt Romney has 93 votes with another 79 which “lean Romney.” The remaining 82 votes are “toss ups.”

Most interesting: Rove lists both South Carolina and Missouri as “toss up” states.

http://politicalwire.com

Gillard , and Labour’s only hope used to be that Tony Abbott was the alternative PM.

Now , not even that will save them.

They have taken such a creaming by our shithouse media that they are unelectable. The ALP , partly by their own doing and mostly by an anti-NBN inspired and self interested mogul funded media shitstorm, are in the trash bin out there in voter land.

Their only remaining hope is the rapid PUBLIC demise and TRASHING of Murdoch. To such an extent that the public twig that most of what they have been fed in this extraordinary past couple of years of media pile-on has been utter crap.

That is the ONLY hope.

The ALP has to be the one to push the PUBLIC trashing of Murdoch, because lets face it, no-one in the media will.

It is the only hope of stopping a rout.

At every media appearance from now on, EVERY ALP Minister and spokesperson should ask if a deal has been done between Murdoch and Abbott. Embrace the shitstorm and keep asking the question.

There is an appetite out in voter land to despise both Murdoch and Abbott.

PUSH IT

or

Lose in a rout.

No other choice.

KatieLou,

Rudd, and then Gillard were systematically torn apart by a media that is LED & DOMINATED by News Ltd. It has been impossible to know what Labours “message” is because it has been totally unreported. Amongst their undoubted stupidity and own goals, Labour’s “message” is A STABLE ECONOMY AMIDST GLOBAL TURMOIL.

But the msm refuse steadfastly to give that “message” ANY air. They are hellbent on seeing off this Government before the NBN changes everything they currently have in their favour.

I happen to agree with Tom Watson that the Murdoch Empire is akin to the mafia. They are wholly corrupt, wholly enamoured with their power, wholly concerned with their own best interest and wholly out of control.

Labour’s “message” could once again be heard if only Gillard would play by their rules.

In Australia, where News Ltd’s dominance is unparalled, they play the tune and the mice follow.

For Australias journalists, speak against the grain and where are your job opportunities???

For Australias voters, where else can we get “the message” ???

KatieLou !
*swoon*
why can’t we have pollies like this ??? 🙁
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/28/white-house-correspondents-dinner-2012_n_1459909.html?icid=maing-grid7%7Cmain5%7Cdl6%7Csec1_lnk2&pLid=156294&ref=fb&src=sp&comm_ref=false

ooops!
‘..we Labor … ” slip of the keyboard.
Green through and through

1179 HarryH “The ALP has to be the one to push the PUBLIC trashing of Murdoch” Totally agree Harry. I’m surprised its taken so long.

It would not matter who was leader of the ALP at the moment. The Media and the monkey are calling for Julia to go and if she did they would not waste a day ripping in to whoever it was to be next.

It does not matter what good things are progressed through this parliament, it gets absolutely no media. The NDIS is a prime example.

Hardly even half a minute of news about it but complete coverage of a fat useless fucken over rich miner who says he will stand against Wayne Swan. He won’t and it is a deliberate distraction aided and abetted by murdoch and his myrmidons.

Australian media is a fucken pathetic disgraceful bunch of groupthink hooligans intent on destroying everything to try to get the people who do them favours back in to power.

I did not watch it but David Speers and Morris, on one of murdochs prime outlets, apparently says it all yesterday when Speers sat there and let Morris promote the idea that the Prime Minister should be kicked to death.
The government needs to take them on and be real hard nosed about it.

Jen

I don’t think we Labor can solely blame Murdoch

It amazes me that you can give Murdoch even an inch of leeway though i suppose you are right. We can not solely blame Murdoch, we have to blame Murdoch and team murdoch that sail in her, all the editors and cut and paste merchants that bless him.

They all attacked Bob Brown with the threat that they will destroy the Greens and you give him breathing space.

The state of the country at the moment as far as i am concerned lies solely at the feet of the rancid media.

Leaks already from the UK hacking report,

http://www.itv.com/news/2012-04-30/exclusive-three-news-international-executives-misled-parliament/

Gaffers – I detest Murdoch and am not intending to give him any space at all . Clearly as a supporter of Greens Nd BB his treatment of us has even despicable as it has of Labor. I am simply making the point that Labor has made it easy for him to attack despite some of the good things they have done because they have not had a leader that can win the public. look at what Obama has had thrown at him and it has hurt him at times and yet he performs Ina way that counters the attacks. Sadly the same cannot be said for Labor. With scum like Murdoch running the country we need a strong decisive and convincing leader and in this Labor -With both Rudd and Gillard has failed .

1189 Gaffhook Spot on Gaffy. The polls today aren’t good for Labor. On the positive side. The tax cuts come out 1st July. Hip pocket nerve will kick in. No matter what the Murdoch press says.

Exclusive: Three ex-News International executives misled Parliament.
**********************************************

The long-awaited and potentially explosive report on phone hacking from the Commons Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee is due this morning.

MPs had their last meeting yesterday morning to sign off the report and ITV News can reveal some of the findings.

More here..
http://www.itv.com/news/2012-04-30/exclusive-three-news-international-executives-misled-parliament/
MPs are set to find Colin Myler, Tom Crone and Les Hinton guilty of misleading the committee and therefore Parliament.

The comments by this dude in Crikey today about social conservatives freak me out. I don’t even understand what he’s talking about. Is it gay marriage? If so, I don’t see what the problem is, because Gillard is against it. And I don’t know wtf he means about the fixation on the language of individualism – if someone can work it out, let me know. And note this is a Labor man – no Murdoch conspiracy here.

Labor man: if she won’t resign, caucus must remove Gillard
Luke Walladge, long-time ALP member and former staffer and campaigner, writes:

Julia Gillard has got to go.

From 44.5% of the primary vote in 2007 to 27% today, from 53.5% of the two-party-preferred vote in 2007 to 41% this morning, from 83 seats in 2007 to 71 this week, she has been an unmitigated disaster. The press gallery has written her off, her colleagues no longer trust her judgment and the public are itchy to not just remove her with prejudice but to do the same to any MP or party tone-deaf enough to insist on her unwavering virtue despite all the evidence. She is trashing the careers of good men and women, forced to support her, and looking foolish.

Gillard has got to go.

As a staffer, campaigner and long-time member of the Labor Party, I know only too well what saying this publicly will probably mean — the cry of “burn the heretic” will soon be up, and accusations of treachery will fill the air. But if the Labor movement occasionally requires a human sacrifice, then Molech must be appeased; and if succeeding in Labor means reacting to it’s disintegration with self-interested silence, then it’s not worth succeeding in.

Not only must Gillard be removed, but it has to be accompanied by a change in policy on the carbon tax. If the leadership is seen as purely cosmetic surgery, it’ll be greeted with even more contempt. Yet if the new leader were to scrap the carbon tax and move directly to an ETS, it would drop the price from $23 a tonne to about $8, thereby acknowledging the kitchen table concerns of ordinary Australians.

This move would immediately acknowledge the No.1 concern of suburban Australia — the cost of living. Exit polling showed 69% of all voters in Queensland considered it “very important” when casting their vote. The WA Premier, Colin Barnett, is facing a protest vote next year on the issue. Labor cannot claim the mantle of working families while it ignores their primary concern and implements a carbon tax it’s never bothered to explain in their language; by the same token, reducing the price-per-tonne sends a clear signal that the message has fallen on open ears.

The second benefit of such a move would be the alienation of the Greens Party from Labor. The “deal” with Bob Brown and Co, done by Gillard to only gain what Labor would have received anyway (some negotiator!) has done more than any other single thing to trash the ALP brand outside the inner cities — and nothing for it in them. If under a new leader Labor could plausibly claim to have listened to the public, accommodated cost-of-living concerns and jettisoned the Greens Party, it could be back in the game within several months.

Which brings up again the question of who the new leader should be. It cannot be Rudd again, no matter his ambitions — the nuclear decimation of his prime ministerial stewardship last March put paid to that. He is untenable as leader. With him, the Liberal ads have already been written, by Swan and Marles and a good many other Labor frontbenchers. And his return would ensure the whole thing was seen through a purely personal prism of Julia versus Kevin, and any policy implications would be even more ignored than they already are.

Which leaves the rest of the frontbench. You can rule out all the women, unfortunately — it will look far too much like Gillard 2.0. Burke and Combet are capable, sure, but also both unready and too close to the Gillard ascendancy. Bill Shorten is too big a talent to waste on a salvage job; his time is next time. A move to Bob Carr, unluckily, would seem too clever by half. Albanese looks much like a hectoring prefect, no matter his undeniable ability in the House. Simon Crean was a disaster from 2001 to 2003, and Martin Ferguson is the candidate all Liberals dream of facing.

There is only one answer — Stephen Smith.

Smith is good-looking and married; appealing, I’m reliably informed, to a good many women. He might be dull, but it’s a reassuring, family, wife-and-kids kind of dull. He’s held serious portfolios in Foreign Affairs and Defence, embarrassing no one and passing the “meet the Queen” test. He comes from a conservative mining state — exactly the terrain Labor needs to do well in to survive. He’s not seen by the public as ambitious beyond the normal remit of politicians, and must know that should Labor lose in 2013 he will never again be a senior minister, let alone PM. There is, then, a certain freedom in doing what needs to be done, without fear of blotting a future chance at the Lodge.

Even this course of events will only save the furniture. Labor can’t hope for more than 60 seats on a good day, but it can make sure it’s not reduced to a rump. The question is whether the federal Labor caucus still believes in Labor values enough to risk the spoils of office … the answer is anyone’s guess.

Finally, Labor needs to examine it’s own direction with brutal frankness. Pandering to inner-city concerns, signing deals with Greens and generally making the party unacceptable to social conservatives has been an unmitigated disaster for Labor. Historically the ALP has been neither predominantly conservative nor predominantly progressive, but instead been a workers’ party. The clue is in the title — Labor — and yet now the party seems incapable of designing or explaining policy in terms that benefit or appeal to the average working Australian. This failure to understand the innate conservatism of the outer suburbs, this fixation on the language of individualism, is costing Labor dearly.

If the Australian Labor Party, this last, best hope of social democracy for the nation, is to survive, we must stop telling the public they are wrong. We might start admitting that maybe we are the problem, not the voters. We might stop treating the Labor Party as nothing more than a corporate career path, and start fighting about what our values are and what we would die for politically rather than expediently jettison.

Should Gillard not resign — and all indications are that the only guiding principle she considers worthy of defending in the face of electoral defeat is her own continued prime ministership — then the caucus must remove her. It’s why we put them there. It’s hard to say, but the present situation is even harder to see.

Gillard has got to go.