John Howard's blatant abuse of constitutional power came to an end this morning when he visited the Governor General and obtained a dissolution of the House of Representatives, and a federal election on November 24. This is the date that Peter Costello implied at the AFL Grand Final Breakfast last month.

The Prime Minister's election announcement has been purloined by the Liberal Party for use on their Youtube website. Unfortunately the Liberal Party apparatchik responsible for uploading the video has no concept of 16:9 ratios.