Fake "undecided" voter at Brisbane people's forum one of many

Not surprised by the revelation that a zealous young Labor supporter called Gabrielle Ward purported to be an undecided voter so she could ask a question at the Brisbane people's forum recently. As Bolta remarks, there seems to be a lot of this happening lately, particularly on Q and A.

Certainly confirms what I've long thought. At the beginning of pretty much every episode of that show you'll see that those who claim to vote LNP outnumber the other voter categories. But if you look at the actual audience you'll see that the majority are borderline retarded whippersnappers, smug middle class wankers, and dirty, smelly ol' hippies. And we all know that people in these sad demographics overwhelmingly "dress to the left" (if they can dress themselves, that is).

Inevitably, Q and A audience members' questions will focus mainly on tragic ol' leftie obsessions such as catastrophic climate change, the hideous cruelty of the "race to the bottom" by the major parties on border policy, gay marriage, eeevil Rupert Murdoch, the appalling rise of misogyny in Australia and the countless shortcomings of the puritanical pugilist Tony Abbott.

Sure, I can't actually prove this, but it's pretty bloody obvious that as they enter the venue for the taping a fair whack of the crowd will happily lie about their political allegiance in a brazen attempt to discredit conservative claims of left-wing bias at the national broadcaster. And they do it week in, week out, at numerous venues all over Oz.

My suspicion is that some are young Labor luvvies like Gabrielle Ward. But the vast majority of those engaging in this widespread and repeated con are Greens supporters. Labor types will resort to dishonesty far more easily than normal folk, sure. But at least they do usually have a moral code, even if they don't use it that often. Hard core Greens supporters, on the other hand, lie as easy as breathing. They get off on it, too.

After all, their whole mission is to white-ant Western civilization at every opportunity. They hate the very idea of universal morality -- seeing at as some sort of eeevil white male plot to control women, gays, minorities, and, er, bilbies. So in their tiny, often bong addled minds, when they fob themselves off as conservatives they don't see it for what it truly is: gutlessly telling porkies. Hilariously, they actually believe they're bravely striking a blow for the dispossessed! Makes 'em feel like members of the French Resistance during the Nazi Occupation, or something.

Gawd, what pathetic skulking little weasels they are ...

Kevin Rudd's popularity is overrated

There's a helluva lot of chatter now about how Julia Gillard will be gone very soon. Clearly many in Labor believe that Rudd really is their best hope of saving the furniture. Some also believe they can beat the Coalition with him at the helm again.

Frankly I think this talk about him being a possible saviour is way over the top. As numerous columnists have pointed out, many of Labor's worst policy disasters actually began under him and not Gillard. And the Libs will be reminding us of that at every opportunity, no doubt. Also, the fact that he gets mobbed by fans in shopping centres doesn't necessarily mean that people will vote for him in droves.

There's something quite strange going on there, actually. It's more to do with mass hysteria than politics. It's kinda like what happens when One Direction are in town and all the schoolgirls go absolutely spacko for the cameras. Part of the reason they do that is because they've seen others do it on previous TV reports. It's a conditioned behaviour; a kind of ritual.

Another example: Gangnam Style. It's a very catchy song with a unique energy about it. And everybody has fun joining in with those signature horse-riding moves. 

Being the outrageous media tart that he is, the former PM has managed to imprint his nerdy and avuncular persona on pretty much the entire Australian population. We've all seen him yucking it up with everyday Aussies in shopping centres right across the land. So taking a selfy while arm-in-arm with the Ruddster and saying "Kevin come back!" for the attendant news cameras just seems like the thing to do.

Many of the same folk being caught up in the circus-like atmosphere that surrounds KRudd on his flesh-pressing jaunts will be in a much more serious frame of mind on election day, however. As a result only his most ardent supporters will actually vote for Labor if he's the leader. And there actually aren't that many of them.

Still, decimation is preferable to near extinction. Which is why the ALP should, and almost certainly will, go back to him. 

Labor's six point Newspoll bounce to be quickly erased?

Got a shock when I was watching the teev last night. Saw a newsflash saying that Labor had surged six points in the latest Newspoll. I hope this is just an aberration like some of the ones that have occurred before and that subsequent polls will show the Coalition still way ahead. 

But if it's not and Labor have genuinely gained ground, I suspect it's got very little to do with anything they've been saying or doing. It's probably just a bit of collective amnesia on the part of the electorate. With many pols on hols, as well as many journos, there's been little to remind us just how godawful this government actually is.

The AWU scandal in particular has faded from public consciousness in recent weeks. But when Parliament resumes and Julie Bishop can resume needling Gillard on her involvement in it people will remember what a dodgy, vicious character the PM is. Her party's recent poll bounce will be be erased for sure then, I reckon.

What do you think?

Royal Commission, anti-discrimination law and Abbott

It's pretty obvious that Labor's main strategy to win the next election is to terminate Tony Abbott with extreme prejudice (or should that be "tolerance"?). They consider his seeming lack of connection with the Australian people in general and women in particular as the Opposition's weakest point. They've been heartened by the success of Gillard's misogyny speech to hurt him electorally and have decided to keep going with the nasty personal smears, increasing their intensity if possible.

When you consider this game plan, it sheds light on a couple of their recent announcements. Take the Royal Commission into child sexual abuse. Obviously, this is going to focus heavily on the Catholic Church. That's a great way to smear Abbott by association.

Then there's this recent huge change to anti-discrimination legislation which makes it so much easier for people to make complaints. This could well be a tactic to draw Abbott into criticizing the law, thereby leaving him open to accusations of homophobia, racist, sexism and all the rest.

Combine the nastiness and cynicism of these goals with Labor's dreadful record on delivering outcomes and it's likely these big initiatives will cause more problems than they solve. They'll spawn horror stories galore before too long, just you watch!

What do you reckon? Are they that cynical, or do you think that maybe Labor does have some sincere motivations for these recent decisions?

Kate Ellis on Q and A and the feminist double standard

It's so ironic that Labor are now trying so relentlessly to demonize Tony Abbott as an eeevil misogynist, when the Government's very existence depends on the support of Craig Thomson and Peter Slipper.

Then there's the obvious misandry and pettiness of the "handbag hit squad". They even try to portray that very appellation as evidence of pervasive sexism. But it was coined by a woman (Julie Bishop) anyway. And what about all the speedo and budgie smuggler jibes hurled at Tony Abbott? They're very gender-specific and demeaning yet the Labor women don't condemn them, and have even been known to repeat them on occasion.

Theirs is the classic politically correct double standard. And one of the most shameless, brazen and petty practitioners of it is surely Nicola "Don't Call Me Nicky!" Roxon. She freely admits to disliking Abbott, has been sliming him for years, yet is miffed that he ignores her in social settings.

Hey, Nicky, I thought you were against all that patriarchal chivalry crap? 

Listen, baby cakes. The reason Abbott doesn't like you is not because you're "capable". It's 'cause you're spectacularly incompetent, and a nasty, sanctimonious hypocrite to boot!

Speaking of hypocrisy: Kate Ellis was on Q and A last night. Now some claim she's part of the handbag hit squad, but I don't agree. She's not down on their level. She's been dutifully pushing the ALP's slimy line on Abbott, sure. But you can see she lacks conviction when doing so. Deep down she knows it's a crock.

Unlike the three scowling sisters Roxon, Plibersek and Wong -- who are all as hard as nails but hide behind their gender when it suits -- she's a more classically (and consistently) feminine woman.

And she actually lacks confidence when speaking publicly. That's why I had some sympathy for her when a few of the blokes on the panel talked over her. This was certainly impolite, but hardly unusual conduct for that show. And it was completely insignificant when you consider how the panel and audience are routinely chockas with lefties, many of whom are obnoxious themselves.

Yet the Twitter squitterati went absolutely spacko over it. This was like their own personal Pearl Harbor, an event that would live in infamy!

Again, that leftie-feminist double standard: They never arc up about a conservative (man or woman) being treated badly or even abused outright, but savour the spectacle instead. Hell, they'll even join in the kicking if they can.

And it wasn't just the online audience who were hypocrites. The studio audience were rude and raucous too. There was a classic moment when a young bespectacled bloke gave Ellis a lecture on what feminism meant. The look on her face was just priceless. She actually let out an audible gasp of incredulity!

Then the audience booed him. To his credit, Tony Jones admonished them for this.

But the cause of their displeasure (and Ellis's shock) was clear. They were dogmatic types who believed that only women (and preferably lefties) had a right to discuss what feminism meant. In their insular, divisive ideology males are expected to either toe the PC line or keep their bloody mouths shut! What a pathetically juvenile and sexist attitude that is.

The majority of Australians, male and female, have had an utter gutfull of this nasty gender war. Labor think they're onto a winner by prosecuting it so relentlesly. But it will backfire on them big time come election day, that's for sure.

Greg Combet accuses Tony Abbott of zoophobia

Shenanigans in Canberra have had a distinctly zoological theme lately. First there was all that faux outrage over Cory Bernardi's statements alluding to bestiality.

Labor and the love media clearly misrepresented him. He was just using hyperbole to express a slippery slope argument. The worst that can be said about his choice of imagery was that it, er, humped the shark. But he certainly wasn't arguing that gay sex was on a par with bestiality. And that was what many of his critics were insinuating.

More recently, Greg Combet sledged Tony Abbott over his fondness for critter-themed language.

"Previously he has described the carbon price as 'another cash cow', 'a python squeeze', 'a cobra strike', 'a dog of a tax', and today it was 'an octopus'," Mr Combet said.

"What's he got against animals?

Labor are so desperate to demonize this guy it's just hilarious. They accuse him of misogyny, homophobia, hatred of walls ... And now he's a zoophobe as well!

It's also pretty ironic when Doug Cameron recently called Ron Boswell a dinosaur. Then there's the fact that Tony Abbot has often been likened to an "attack dog" by those in the press gallery, most of whom are card carrying Labor luvvies. Oh, and then there was that time that Bob Hawke said Abbott was "mad as a cut snake"...

What have the ALP got against animals?

Lara Giddings unlikely to succeed with gay marriage push

Tasmania has been the scene for some notable developments regarding gay rights issues. The most well known of these was the Toonen vs Australia case. That resulted in the repeal of Australia's last sodomy laws. A good outcome. 

Now there's another big legal change brewing in the Apple Isle. And that's the legalization of gay marriage. Zealous advocates of this radical shift seem to believe they've got widespread support, and that once it's law everyone will be okay with it.

The Premier Lara Giddings told the Tasmanian Labor Party conference yesterday she would legislate marriage equality into law by the end of the year.

"We have received legal advice that certainly says that we can take these steps," the Premier said.

"The community wants this change to occur and certainly the Labor Party does."

Maybe the ALP in Tasmania is wholly supportive. But federally it sure as hell ain't. I recall some big time argy-bargy at their last federal conference, with Joe de Bruyn sticking up for breeders and being loudly heckled by scores of sneering hipsters from the party's left-wing. And Julia Gillard herself is well known as one who is yet to be attitudinally reconstructed on this issue.

So if Giddings thinks it's all gonna be smooth sailing on the good ship "Marriage Equality" she's got another thinkola comin'. When asked, many Tasmanians may be giving the impression that they reckon gay marriage is all fine and dandy. That's basically 'cause they're terrified of being labelled homophobic. But deep down they feel great unease, I reckon. They're gonna arc up about it big time!

Frankly I doubt that the proposed changes will be made law in the first place. But if they are, there'll be such a massive backlash that they'll be overturned soon after -- kinda like the Northern Territory euthenasia laws were back in the 1990s.

UPDATE: An article that appeared on Google News minutes ago points to problems already.

Julia Gillard on Q and A last night

Julia Gillard was on Q and A last night. I didn't watch every little moment of her appearance because I find her so annoying in so many ways that I have to turn off the TV from time to time. Did see most of it, however.

And there were a few things that stood out. Firstly, I don't think she mentioned Tony Abbott even once. This was really noticeable because she and pretty much everyone else in the ALP have been doing their level best to demonize him for months.

Perhaps the focus group results have shown that Australians are sick to death of the relentless, destructive negativity of this mean-spirited tactic and the spin doctors have told Gillard et al to ease up on it for a while? We'll know this to be the case if Gillard maintains the approach she used last night, and ministers such as Craig Emerson refrain from their endless Abbott bashing in interviews and on Twitter.

The other alternative is that maybe she was just playing with Abbott's mind? That's possible. But frankly, I don't think she's that smart.

As usual, she never really answered any questions. She just used them to wheel out the old platitudes about how she was motivated solely by her desire to improve the lot of working families.

She also used one of her favourite phrases "it was a judgement call, and I made it" at least once. She frequently uses this or a variation thereof to "answer" questions about why she made a certain decision.

This is akin to saying: "Yes, I did decide that. And what I decide goes. That's all you need to know."

It goes beyond the usual obfuscatory poli-speak and reveals a disdain for the public that is really quite sinister. But she's so polished and relaxed in her delivery that she gets away with it. And she'll throw in that stupid little fake giggle of hers occasionally, which also seems to put people off the scent.

And just re that laugh. One time it did actually appear to be genuine was when she concurred with this audience member's observation:

AUDIENCE MEMBER: If you go by the opinion polls when Kevin was challenging for the leadership, the majority of Australians would have preferred to have him as the leader of the Labor Party but the Labor Party sought different to have somebody else.

JULIA GILLARD: That's true. Well, and the way...

TONY JONES: It is a strange dichotomy, though, isn’t it? The Labor Party wanted someone, the people wanted someone else is what he is saying.

So, she actually admitted that her party brazenly flouted the will of the people. And she thought this was funny. Very revealing.

Needless to say Labor's useful idiots took to Twitter with gusto, saying how assured and genuine Gillard was. True to form the ABC's online editors made sure these nauseating suck-tweets were given inordinate exposure.

Ugh ... Oh well, as galling as this was it's actually a good thing. It merely confirmed that creepy communards are currently in control, as well as the disturbing extent of their influence. When the good people of Oz do get a chance to kick them out of office, they'll be kicking bloody hard, that's for sure.

The Project's blowhards bully Steve Price on asylum seekers

The Project is one of the most dreadful shows on television. The regular panel members are all insufferably smug, vain and vacuous, as well as being drearily PC. The way they all affect a cheerful demeanour, yucking it up at every opportunity, just makes you wanna hurl!

Everything about the show is bogus. Not surprisingly they're all Labor luvvies (birds of a feather and all that). They often suck up to the Government, and I suspect that at least one of them has long term political aspirations. I reckon you might even see one of these airheads being parachuted into a safe Labor seat in years to come -- er, if there are any such seats left, that is.

Last night's show was a perfect example of their shameless tyre-pumping. They did a story on the Government's daffy plan to pay Aussies $300 a week to host asylum seekers in their homes (story starts around the 9 minute mark).

Desperate to display their fake "compassion" they enthusiastically endorsed the plan. Carrie Bickmore said she was "open" to the idea of having an asylum seeker in her house. As Tabbydevils said on Twitter this was "like clicking 'maybe' on a Facebook invitation. We all know it means 'no'."

At the end of the segment Steve Price appeared to put the eeevil conservative point of view. The pompous pack just couldn't handle it. They suffered a fit of collective lefteous indignation and did their best to shut him up. It was amazingly immature and unprofessional.

The funniest bit was when they started mocking him for selfishly refusing to share his big ten-room mansion. As if they are not well paid themselves, and don't aspire to material success. 

While they all ganged up like the nasty, petty bullies they are deep down he managed to make the point that none of them would put up an asylum seeker in their homes either.

Their hypocrisy was on open display. But it didn't bother them. It makes you wonder what they think of their audience. They must hold them in utter contempt. 

The only reason they had Price on was to bag and bully him -- not to engage in any kind of debate. This tactic is so typical of the Left. They never play the ball, always the man. They are always trying to force confrontations in which they can shout down a dissenter. It's truly nasty, primitive stuff.

The message to those watching is two-fold. Firstly they're telling them that the person they're shouting at is such a bad and horrible man that anything he says should not even be allowed to be heard. Secondly -- and this is the more sinister part -- they're issuing a warning to those presently on their side. They're saying don't you dare consider listening to the dissenter and actually considering his arguments. If you do that, you will be given the same abusive, hectoring treatment.

It's all fear-based, see. The collective keeps its members -- and followers -- in line by way of veiled threats. What an ugly world they live in.

And this is just a pack of bloody TV blowhards, where the collectivism is comparatively mild! Imagine what it must be like in the ALP, or worse still the Greens.

Ugh. The mere thought of it makes my skin walk.

Stephen Smith, like Rudd and Gillard, is a very odd person

Heaps of commentators are really getting stuck into Defence Minister Stephen Smith, saying he should resign for his shockin' treatment of Commodore Bruce Kafer. Hell, even Mike Carlton is of this mind. Now that's saying something!

It's pretty clear that Smith dislikes his job and the military itself. That has a lot to do with why he's botched this particular issue big time. But he also seems to possess a more general lack of intuition and common sense that I find really quite strange. 

He's long struck me as being a very cold, humourless character who takes himself enormously seriously. From his demeanour he certainly seems professional but as this issue in particular has borne out he can overreact wildly and doggedly insist on the least sensible option. The cool, competent persona is just a mask. It really makes you wonder about what's going on in his head.

That's a problem with so many of the most powerful people in Labor. Take Rudd and Gillard. One is narcissistic, the other is duplicitous in the extreme. They've just had this amazing stoush over nothing more than personal ambition that has damaged the party's reputation hugely. And they don't seem to give a tinker's about that!

Political leaders right across the spectrum are all going to be highly ambitious, of course. But in all other areas of life you'd hope that most would be comparatively well adjusted. How else would they be able to connect and communicate with the voters apart from anything else? I mean, you wouldn't expect them to be full-on weirdos now would you?

You'd think that intra-Labor competition and selection processes would weed out people with such obvious personality flaws as Smith, Gillard and Rudd -- or at least not let them progress too far up the greasy pole. But the opposite seems to have happened. It really makes you wonder what the hell is going on in that party.

Angus Paterson, cameraman hit by Gillard's convoy, is a legend!

This accident in which a cameraman was run over by a car in Gillard's convoy, seems almost like a metaphor for the current state of the Labor Party. They just blithely go on pursuing their own petty, internal agendas, waging war against each other. And if any lowly Australian citizen gets in the way, well, stuff 'em!

I saw at least one TV journo -- very supportive of Gillard in his report, by the way --  more or less blame the photographer himself for the mishap. Well, whether it was Angus Paterson's fault or not, you have to be impressed by his reaction to having his foot run over.

In the video footage he himself filmed he falls to the ground in agony, yet still has the presence of mind to tell the driver to "move forward". Then a few seconds and as many expletives later he assesses the damage, saying it's not that serious, because he didn't feel that anything had "snapped". 

The bloke's a legend. Maybe he should be the next PM?

The Tent Embassy fiasco and Gingerella's missing shoe

Whether you vote Labor or Liberal, you'd have to find seeing the nation's Prime Minister and Opposition Leader running in fear from an enraged mob of Aboriginal activists on Australia Day truly depressing. The fiasco showed just how ridiculous things have become in this country when it comes to racial politics -- not to mention politics generally.

Then there was the role of the media ... Basically Abbott made some quite reasonable remarks about the Tent Embassy. Shameless lefty hacks beat them up. It also looks like there might have been some very slimy tactics from within the PM's office itself:

Sydney radio presenter Ray Hadley today said he'd received information that Ms Shaw or another protester had received a call from a Gillard staffer about comments Mr Abbott made earlier in the day about the tent embassy.

"Once she was told that, she was also told Mr Abbott was across the road, 'maybe you can give them a bit of a liven up'," the 2GB presenter told his audience today.

"Barbara Shaw then went on stage and for all intents and purposes, incited people."

Apparently, this hasn't been confirmed. Still, considering what the scum-sucking sleaze merchants of Labor regularly get up to, I wouldn't be at all surprised.

Well, whoever was ultimately responsible for things getting out of thand, and whether the AFP did overreact as some believe, the whole event bordered on the surreal.

Then there was Gillard's missing shoe. Couldn't help thinking it had a fairy tale quality to it. And others picked up on that Cinderella parallel -- including the very protestor who picked up the shoe!

As Ms Gillard was rushed from a Canberra restaurant yesterday after being trapped inside with the Opposition leader, Tony Abbott, for more than 20 minutes, her right Midas low-rise wedge shoe was lost in the melee.

It was found later by a protester who gleefully raised it above her head and cried, "Gingerella, come get your shoe."

While her actions were downright disgraceful, you have to give this person a coupla cool points for wit and timing. The ABC should hire her post-haste as a comedy writer. Not only would the choice be perfectly PC, but she's clearly far more talented than most of those already employed in that department. (Don't believe me? Watch any episode of The Hamster Wheel, Spicks and Specks or In Gordon St Tonight.)

But back to the shoe: The fact that it was a "Midas" was also weirdly apposite. Gillard's reign has been so disastrous, the woman clearly has a reverse Midas touch. Hell, anything she gets anywhere near rapidly turns to poo. If she does get the footwear item back, I wouldn't be surprised if she finds a dog turd stuck to the heel. 

And as to whether it is returned: Looks like it won't be. If it is sold on eBay as planned then this will show not just how mean spirited and opposed to true reconciliation the protestors actually are; it will also take Gillard's credibility down to a new low. I mean, imagine being a nation's leader, having your shoe nicked and not having the nerve and authority to get the bloody thing back?

You couldn't get any piss-weaker if you tried.

UPDATE: Kidnapped shoe returned to its traditional owner. Those advocating for footwear rights will be glad that justice has been served. (Not sure if the dog poo's been wiped off it, but.)

Carbon tax will haunt Labor for years

The dreaded carbon tax has been passed by the Lower House. Gillard and company are arrogant enough to think that Aussies will eventually get used to it and Labor will rise again in the polls. But she just made a lot of people who were pissed off to begin with utterly ropeable. There's no way she'll ever get them back. Nor will any other Labor leader. We all know that Labor is toast, but it will be burnt to a crisp now for sure at the next election.

And if, as some pundits have said, there are lots of sneaky little conditions written into the legislation that make it really hard to dismantle, then this anger towards Labor will go on and on as long as any part of it lives.

Of course Many Labor MPs are now ruing the day that Gillard went back on her pledge not to introduce the carbon tax, even while pretending to support her. But I think they'll still be deeply regretting the breaking of her promise even years from now.

I don't know that Labor will actually die as a major force because of the carbon tax. But it could come scarily close.

Why Rudd won't win if reinstalled, despite strong polling

The recent poll results that foreshadow a Rudd victory if Labor reinstalls their knifed leader are getting a lot of media coverage. They must also figure prominently in the party's secret deliberations about whether to replace Gillard with the bloke she toppled.

But if Labor do actually go back to the, er, suture, could they stitch up a win? Frankly I don't think so.

I believe that what the polls reflect is not so much clear support for Rudd, but more the electorate's desire to be once again in control of their government. It's as if the people are saying: "We voted Rudd in back in 2007. And we were robbed of the chance to vote him in again, or throw him out, in 2010. We want Rudd back so that we, the people, can decide who leads the nation, not a bunch of ruthless, faceless power brokers."

Of course I have no real evidence to back up this claim. It's just a hunch, but I'm pretty sure it's on the right track.

I suspect that there's a strong chance Labor heavies will take the most optimistic interpretation that can be gleaned from these polls and reinstall Rudd soon, even though they utterly detest him. And while the Coalition's lead will take a big hit, they'll still ultimately win the next election comfortably. 

Julia Gillard, feminism and scandals caused by dodgy blokes

Just a thought on this old scandal from Julia Gillard's days as a lawyer: As Bolta is at pains to point out, she didn't actually know she was being implicated in a scam by her then lover Bruce Wilson. But the fact that she was says a lot about how poor her judgement was.

And now, with Craig Thomson, she keeps stressing how much confidence she has in him. That message is clearly partly aimed at Thomson himself, so that he doesn't quit or decide to turn on Labor. But perhaps it's also got something to do with her really trusting the guy. Maybe she actually believes he did nothing wrong or is basically a good guy deep down who deserves her support.

Who knows? In any case she does seem oddly supportive of blokes whose morality clearly leaves a lot to be desired. And this is greatly at odds with her image as an empowered, independent, lefty feminist. These women love to see themselves as aware of and immune to the duplicity of dodgy blokes -- be that in relationships or professional life. Yet they seem to fall for these scumbags and their ruses repeatedly. It's actually really sad.

I've seen it happen to a lot of lefty feminists I've known over the years. Many of them get burned by tricksters who win their affections by striking the requisite politically correct poses. They kowtow to feminism and have all the right (or should I say, left) attitudes to gender relations in particular and politics in general. Yet more often than not they're just dirty dogs deep down.

I've actually come to the conclusion that the syndrome constitutes a kind of iron law. The more a woman spouts lefty feminist dogma about her virtue and good sense over pervasive male rottenness, the more likely it is she'll fall foul of exactly the kind of bloke she so condemns.

Richo nails it on Thomson, Gillard and Labor

Here's a good column by the legendary former Labor numbers man Graham Richardson. He's the guy famous for the line "whatever it takes". So if he's condemning the party's machinations, well, you know they've gone to a very smelly place indeed.

Speaking of which, Richo uses some powerful olfactory (and visual) imagery in his descriptions of Labor's predicament:

Then of course there is the Craig Thomson effect. This bloke is damaging the Labor brand every day he hangs around the parliament like a bad smell in a lift ...

Luck is important in politics. When John Howard faced defeat, the Tampa sailed to the rescue. I always believed that Hawke would put his hand down a sewer and pull out a $20 bill. I'm afraid Gillard would pull out something else entirely.

Hell, she wouldn't even have to leave her office to test the hypothesis. Labor has turned Parliament House itself into a sewer; a sewer now chockas with the stinking objects Richo alludes to.

The issue is beyond doubt. Labor is utterly unpolishable.

Ian Rintoul on The Bolt Report

Just watched The Bolt Report. There was a short interview with Ian Rintoul, a full on leftie who wants a very soft approach to the whole asylum seeker issue. Bolta only asked him a few questions but his responses were revealing.

When Bolt ran the line that the people smugglers were clearly testing the Government's resolve regarding their Malaysian solution by including little kids in their human cargo, Rintoul sidestepped the issue. He was clearly reluctant to judge the people smugglers. In the leftie "mind" there's no such thing as criminality. It's all just social and economic forces, you see.

When asked how he felt about the fact that so many people had died at sea as a result of border control policies that were soft, but not as soft as he would like, he weaseled out again, and did some pretty expansive contextualizing. In a probably unconscious acknowledgement that the Government's approach had cost lives he said that he didn't think "the welfare of asylum seekers was on the Government's mind". Nor on Rintoul's it seems.

Basically, what Rintoul's advocating will result in even more deaths at sea. Yet that doesn't seem to bother him. Ironic considering he and his ilk keep quacking on about how "compassionate" they are.

Have a squizz at the interview and see if you can come to a different conclusion.

Labor's poisonous culture reminiscent of the movie The Firm

As Labor presses on with its disastrous plans to inflict a spectacularly pointless carbon tax upon the good people of Australia, secretly skeptical party heavies are going insane with frustration in their climate closets. There are quite a few in the party who must desperately want to do something (knife Ju-liar, get her to dump the tax, or preferably both) to make the problem go away. But there's a truly flightening level of bloody-minded groupthink in Labor that is keeping them pinned down and silent, at least for the time being.

Niki Savva writes about one wretched soul whose life has been made utterly miserable by the carbon tax policy:

As despair sinks into depression, one cabinet minister recently revealed his desolation in a conversation with an acquaintance when he confessed political life had become near intolerable.

He acknowledged the carbon tax is destroying the government, yet they could not walk away from it. He could not see - or he was not prepared to admit it that openly yet - a way out and this only fed his frustration.

This prominent member of a government, which recites like a Gregorian chant the mantra that climate change is real, then admitted his grave doubts about the science. He didn't use the word crock, but that was pretty much what this secret deniers' camp follower was saying.

In an interview with Bolta she expanded on why the poor bastard couldn't break ranks and do the right thing. Doing so would ultimately bring down the Government, and he would become Labor's "king rat for all time". Knowing how much the party hates its "rats" (remember their loathing of Mal Colston, whom Robert Ray memorably derided as the "quisling Quasimodo from Queensland") you can understand why he's currently choosing silence.

While Labor isn't quite in the Mafia's league when it comes to reprisals for betrayal, it certainly does have some rather effective compliance methods in operation. I can't help thinking that this poor pollie's predicament is more than a little like that of the protagonist in the movie The Firm, based on John Grisham's book:

Mitch McDeere (Tom Cruise) is a young man with a promising future in law. About to graduate from Harvard Law School, he is approached by Bendini, Lambert & Locke, 'The Firm', and made an offer he cannot refuse. He and his wife, Abigail "Abby" (Jeanne Tripplehorn), move to Memphis, where The Firm is located. Avery Tolar (Gene Hackman) becomes his mentor at The Firm.

Seduced by the money and gifts showered on him, including a house and car, he is at first totally oblivious to the more sinister side of his company. Then, two associates are murdered. The FBI contact him, asking him for information and informing him that not only is The Firm mob connected but every associate that has ever tried to leave The Firm ends up murdered. His life as he knows it is forever changed. He has a choice: work with the FBI and risk being discovered by The Firm, or stay with The Firm knowing that at sometime he will get involved with laundering mob money and in the end go to jail when the FBI cracks The Firm. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it.

Of course the murderous criminality is not present in Canberra, but this miserable minister is clearly in a similar bind. He must either turn against his own party in the interests of the nation or obediently toe its line -- a line based on a mountain of lies. Either way he will lose his life as he knows it.

Spooky, isn't it. I can see a great political thriller being made about this bloke a few years hence. Can Tom Cruise do an Aussie accent?

Dennis Glover on The Bolt Report

Just watched The Bolt Report. One of Bolta's guests was the Labor speechwriter Dennis Glover. He's obviously an intelligent and articulate bloke but he kept making the classic Labor mistake: When confronted by working people's genuine frustration with the Government, Laborites never take it for what it is, but claim that it's only because the shock jokes have been winding 'em up. This is a condescending attitude that is deeply held in the party, and one of the main reasons they are in such deep, deep doo-doo. The more they express this contemptuous view of working class people, the worse their situation gets.

Really, they have to stop treating the electorate as utter nongs who can be "ginned up" by the Alan Joneses of the world and accept that Aussies can think for themselves and are bloody angry about they way they've been treated. Once Labor shows these people some respect and accepts responsibility for their own dire situation they may actually start to recover in the polls.

Kristina Keneally on what ails Labor

Kristina Keneally reveals one of the attitudes that is afflicting today's Labor in her opinion of how best to fix the party. She says that it needs a "rebranding".

Ms Keneally said the Labor Party needed to develop a new brand, claiming most people did not know what it stood for.

She thinks it's all a marketing problem! No, most people know what Labor "stands" for: monumental incompetence, dysfunction, petty internal hatreds and utter disdain for the electorate, among other things.

The problem is that Labor politicians themselves don't believe in anything much. Mostly they just see the party as a way to further their own personal ambitions -- you know, have a great income with a load of perks, get to boss people around, hobnob with celebs ... that sort of thing.

She's kind of right when she says this:

"We speak very well to the unionised workforce and we speak very well to the educated progressive class, but we don't have a brand or a method of speaking to middle Australia."

Yeah, that's because they wrote off middle Australia a long time ago. And middle Australia has finally run out of patience with them.