Mick Smith - Times Online - WBLG

Letter from the Left Coast: Now Come the Really Dirty Tricks!

The blog returns from holiday with Ian Bowater our leftie in LA still adamant that having run one of the worst campaigns in political history McCain could still find ways to cheat a victory

The now famous McCain grab-ass photo from the final presidential debate was probably best rendered by “Berliner Zeitung”. It was almost exquisite in its symbolic detail. The background was a Prussian blue. In Europe we always associate blue with conservatism whereas it is the colour of the Democrats in America. Red states are Republican as in red meat and redneck. Barack Obama is left of the frame with his head slightly bowed, lips tight looking dignified. He could be an artist’s study for an eventual slavery memorial. McCain takes centre frame. He is a slavering homunculus like the grasping capitalist from a scathing Otto Dix print. Together the two images look like elements of the evolution man with Obama as homo erectus and McCain an ill-formed primitive, grasping at stature. The title is simply “Endspurt”, which sounds like the money shot from a cheap porno movie. It means, in fact, final spurt or push as in a race. But here it will forever mean a last desperate grab.

It Wasn't Like That in My Day! A Tragic Loss of Historic Scottish Regiments, But One Lives On!

The Atholl Highlanders, Britain's only private army

Anyone who has ever served in the forces will know that they are full of fiercely nationalistic Scots. Here Chuck Unsworth, our resident army veteran, is north of the border musing on the loss of the distinctive Scottish regiments and wondering if Alex Salmond might bring them back.

Autumn – a truly grand time to re-visit the Highlands.  The summer crowds of tourists are dispersing rapidly, the colours of the hills and glens glorious, and the low-angle bright sunlight brings the landscape into sharp relief, contrasting with crystal clear blue skies.  Ah yes, ‘now’s the day, and now’s the hour’ to see and tour Scotland at its very best – for at least the next few weeks before the weather really closes in.

Letter from the Left Coast: McCain Support for Veterans is a Fallacy

Ian Bowater, our old-fashioned leftie lost in LA, looks at McCain's poor record on backing the military and laughs at suggestions the financial crisis means we're all socialists now. 

Let'€™s talk about political certitude. Remember the old saying '€œsafe as houses'€? It'€™s the houses that are the problem. Politicians, left and right, were dead set against the bailout right up the moment they were for it. The coin was tossed and came down on the other side, just like that. Remember when HDMI was a socket on your new flat screen TV? Who knew it was a Hybrid Derivative Monetary Instrument. Banks and bankers thought they were great right up the moment they turned toxic. Then they became sceptics. Everything is certain right up to the point of flux. The Dow and the FTSE went in a tailspin. Stock Exchanges stopped being accurate barometers of economic performance and became upper class bingo halls.

My Son's in Afghanistan: Not Any More Thank God!

Mandy, our soldier's Mum, celebrates his return, while thinking of the mothers whose sons came back early

Ross stuck his head round the stairwell, looked at me and said, “That fire needs more coal mum!” Oh my lord! Oh my god! War! What war? He just laughed! We hugged and kissed and hugged and bawled our eyes out. Well ok. I did. He just grinned. Beenie was dancing. Tom just kept talking and the dog fell down the stairs. Again.

Tracking Down Grandma's Secret Life as a Spy

The myth that Ian Fleming knew very little about MI6 has thankfully been exploded by a new file belated released to the National Archives at Kew, see Sunday’s article in the Sunday Times. The file was uncovered by Phil Tomaselli during research for his forthcoming book on how to track down your ancestors if they worked in intelligence. Ever since I wrote Station X: the Codebreakers of Bletchley Park, I have had repeated requests from people whose parents or grandparents worked there asking me if I know what they did. So I always knew Phil’s book Secret Service Ancestors, to be published by Pen and Sword would find a ready market. Unfortunately, the name of his book was removed in some editions of the Sunday Times, so here is the title once again Secret Service Ancestors. It is full of fascinating revelations. Tomaselli is a master at uncovering the hidden secrets of Britain's spooks and his book goes back to before the First World War, so if your parents, grandparents, or even your great-grandparents worked as codebreakers, or spies, or in any area of intelligence and you want to know what they did, this is the book to buy.

PS I'm on holiday in Turkey so apologies if you comments are taking a little longer to moderate than normal. Mick

Letter from the Left Coast: McCain Blames Obama and Women for the Crash, Will He Dump Palin?

Ian Bowater, our old-fashioned leftie lost in Los Angeles, wonders who else McCain will find to blame for the financial crash

Give me liberty or give me debt! The House of Representatives voted for liberty and rejected the Bush/Paulson/Bernanke bailout package endorsed by a panicked Democratic leadership. It started last week with the Death of a Salesman. Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke, fetched up in Congress with a charming idea called a “bailout” plan. What he was selling was a bunch of “toxic loans”. Sounds inviting, doesn’t it? Shit sandwich anyone? Henry Paulson, Secretary of the Treasury turned to the 9/11, Iraq War, Patriot Act playbook and said it had to be done and done quickly. Fortunately, enough on the left and right in the House of Representatives cottoned on to the idea that “a bailout”  is supposed to mean shipping water out of a sinking vessel rather that letting 700 billion gallons in. John McCain rode in to rescue the bailout and ended up bailing out on the rescue.