DESPERATE TACTICS FROM REPUBLICANS SIGNAL OBAMA WIN

Sarah Palin. Has went way too far by linking Obama with terrorism.

I won't confess to having much interest in the US Presidential elections. There is very little difference between the Republicans and Democrats and whoever gets elected is unlikely to substantially change US policy worldwide.

The ignorant buffoon Bush has made America unpopular worldwide and yet he was elected for two terms, his folksy idiocy which the rest of the planet viewed with horror seemed (for the most part) to be just an indication that he was one of America's own.

I now confidently predict that Barack Obama will win the White House. The fairly smart and celebral McCain in an attempt to improve his image chose a young, inexperienced but attractive running mate to boost his credibility and give him the common god fearin' touch which served Bush well.

Unfortunately Sarah Palin is also a loud mouthed ignorant bigot. Her lack of knowledge of the outside world has been painfully obvious in her TV interviews and her harsh but carefully crafted sound bites haven't covered up her basic incompetence.

McCain had signalled that he was going to move into personal attack territory. However Palin has now severely overstepped the mark. Calling a presidential candidate a friend of terrorists is just too desperate to work.

This is the end of the McCain challenge as is forcefully argued here much of his appeal was that he seemed a bit different from the rest of the discredited Republican machine (people had became sick of Bush and his party eventually) but now his campaign has shown he will do and say anything to get elected. He's lost it and will now lose the election.

Comgratulations Obama. I hold no hope that you will do anything great but you can't be much worse than the last one.

Mark Lazarowicz must resign over Labour's new internment policy

I must register my complete disgust, firstly with the Labour Government who have now introduced effective internment for modern terrorists by agreeing potential detention periods of up to 42 days and completely ignored the effect of this policy in the past in Northern Ireland.

Secondly, with the BBC's newsnight Scotland program who rather than treat the subject with the respect it deserved preferred to have Gordon Brewer giggle with Brian Monteith and Lorraine Davidson over the fact that the Conservatives David Davis had saw fit to resign and force a by-election.

It is incredible that no genuine Scottish response to this measure could be found. What an insult to the people of Scotland this abysmal half-hearted add-on of a programme is.

However even the antics of the above pale into insignificance behind the total idiocy of my local MP. A Scottish paper reported that: Mark Lazarowicz, the Labour MP for Edinburgh North and Leith, had grave reservations about the proposal and had considered rebelling, but said: "I was given assurances that they do not expect the powers to be used."

Thanks very much Mr Lazarowicz, vote for effective internment even though you apparently don't believe in it but you are foolish enough to believe an utterly desperate Prime Minister!

No legislation is ever passed that is not intended to be used. If Mr Lazarowicz disagreed with the proposal he should have voted against or at the very least abstained. Instead his Government has provided an effective recruiting sergeant for future suicide bombers by ripping up the rule of law. Detention without charge or trial is simply not acceptable in any modern democracy and certainly should not be happening in Scotland.

I respectfully suggest that Mr Lazarowicz should do the decent thing and resign and allow someone to become our MP who is actually fit to do the job and vote on such issues on principle. His actions simply are not good enough and are an embarassment to all the constituents he is supposed to represent.

Scots lawyers must have liberty to attack injustice

The trial of Aamer Anwar for contempt of court which begins tomorrow at the High Court in Edinburgh has huge implications for the type of society that we wish to live in.

This case takes place in the shadow of a war in Iraq which was carried out without the sanction of the United Nations. It happened in revenge for an unconnected act of violence which was in itself blowback for various intelligence operations which failed. Osama Bin Laden was a CIA asset trained to fight the soviets in Afghanistan who eventually realised that the US was as large an enemy to his and his fellow rebels interests as the Soviets.

His network believes it is fighting an all out war against the military occupation of the Middle East, a modern crusade by Christianity against Islam. The war is real, the consequences are real and the threat to our civil liberties in this country is very real as well. Already the right to a fair trial (Habeus Corpus) has been undermined with a pre trial dentention period of one month during which time anyone can be held on suspicion. Not content with the longest period of detention in the western world Labour wants to extend this to 42 days.

ID cards are being pushed through the UK parliament on the back of terrorist threats yet the Goverment has admitted in correspondence that they would have no significant effect on terrorism whatsoever!

On the front line of often badly drawn and regressive legislation which can give suspects an effective life sentence for publishing seditious material on the internet are the human rights lawyers. One in particular, Aamer Anwar is treading the balance between what is right to protect society and the human rights of his client. Sadly the state has decided that it not only doesn't like the actions of his clients, it doesn't like what he says in defence of them.

This is extremely worrying. To ensure our justice system works effectively all lawyers must have complete liberty to attack any decision which they believe adversely affects their client or is injurious to civil rights in general. this should particularly apply in the case of lawyers fighting high profile human rights cases based on new legislation.

In Scotland we like to believe we have a decent respect for human rights. Sadly that respect is not shared by the British Government which has been extremely cavalier about European human rights legislation and has in consequence experienced a whole series of judicial reverses because of badly framed legislation and attempted abuse of executive powers.

If this case is successful then in the future lawyers might rightly fear the consequences of pursuing difficult cases and fully expressing their opinions if they are going to be threatened with a subsequent appearance in the dock themselves once their trials are over. If even a popular, widely celebrated and respected Scottish lawyer like Aamer Anwar can be convicted on these charges in a Scottish court then in future the truth will only be what the British state says it is.

That's not good enough in these dangerous and volatile times.

Why BritGov can't be trusted on ID cards

This story should be the final straw for the ill fated ID cards project. Losing 11,000 military ID cards goes beyond incompetence.

As you can see from the above letter, full story here:

http://www.geocities.com/joe_middleton_sco/ID_Cards.htm the Government has already admitted that ID cards would not "have a significant effect in combating terrorism in the United Kingdom."

This didn't stop them repeating this misleading allegation on numerous occasions after issuing the above letter however! Later on they admitted they were lying but still they have tried to link the two issues in the public mind.

The British Government cannot be trusted to tell the truth about ID cards. They cannot be trusted to hold the information they would contain and they cannot be trusted to keep their word that the scheme will not be compulsory. In the above letter they said it wouldn't be, later on it would be and now supposedly it isn't apart from for students and asylum seekers!

It's time to end this crazy project altogether. No-one should be forced to carry a plastic laminated Union Jack ID card in their pocket and have their eyeballs and fingerprints scanned on a regular basis.

I will refuse to take an ID card if they do come to pass and I urge everyone else to do the same, and don't trust the Government if they pretend they are giving up on it either. This scheme has been killed off and revived more times than Dracula!