I think a lot of people who read this blog (and I know that's like saying - in the words of Bernard Wooley - "a lot of Radio Three listeners") probably come away with the idea that I'm anti-American. I'm not, what I am is anti-hypocrisy and anti-imperialist. I love the US Constitution (with the notable exception of the Second Amendment) and only wish that the nation that it represents lived by it.

The election on November 4th this year has huge implications, not only for Americans, or indeed for their standing in the world but for the world as a whole and that's why there's a tilt in my posting towards comment on the campaign and situation across the pond. I recently exchanged some messages with a friend of mine who's a Californian but now lives over here. She's trying to figure out who to give her overseas vote to (worth noting that all 55 Electoral College votes from CA are almost certain to go to Obama). She was struggling and I tried to be as impartial as possible in offering her places to go to get to grips with the two candidates positions on the issues (again, I know there are other candidates but until a third-party candidate picks up an EC vote, no-one's really going to care).

That was all a very long preamble so that it's very clear that it is with no glee whatsoever that I provide a link to today's report from Robert Fisk in the Independent: Six years in Guantanamo. "Sami al-Haj, an Al-Jazeera cameraman was beaten, abused and humiliated in the name of the war on terror ... 'We know you are innocent' ... 'All they wanted was for me to be a spy for them.'"

I also provide a link to this post from one of the BBC's reporters in the US, Justin Webb: Nailing a sneezing maverick. A very quick look at how McCain's poll lead has atrophied in the space of a week. September 18th - one week ago - had McCain on 274 EC votes to Obama's 243 (21 ties). That is now Obama 286, McCain 252. Obama's looking more and more presidential with each passing day while McCain seems panicked and unfocused. I know which of those options I would want as Commander-in-Chief.