The latest such oligarchical endorsement of Mitt over Newt, the Grinch who will steal all our Christmases, is from one Harrison Ruffin Tyler.

Never heard of him?  Well I’m not surprised, but his name and his support for Mitt over Newt (who he feels is “a jerk” because of his three marriages) is all over the American papers and internet.  I saw it on Politico.

Harrison Tyler aged 84, has the privilege of being the grandson of the tenth President of the United States John Tyler who was born in 1790 and who took office in 1841.  Which is remarkable, as it’s like finding a grandson to say, Sir Robert Peel who was a contemporary British Prime Minister.  Although frankly more Americans are likely to have heard of Tyler, than Brits are to have heard of Peel.

Harrison also has a brother, Lyon Gardiner Tyler jr.

President Tyler by George Healy

President Tyler of an old Virginia family, and descended from Pocahontas, did not make much impact during his term of office leaving in 1845 to pursue a sort of “Carteresque” afterlife floating about “doing good”.  His family though continued to hold high office with David Gardiner Tyler who died in 1927 being a US Representative for Virginia and then Senator.  William Tyler born 1902 was a US Representative from Maryland.  Where he might be best remembered would be as the great-grand-uncle of President Truman.

The timing smacks of desperation.

Copyright David Macadam 2012

This is the putative front cover of Bloomberg Businessweek showing a battered Romney created by Richard Turley and his team. It circulated online but was pulled at the last minute from it’s paper copies thereby ensuring maximum publicity with minimal condemnation.

Clever eh?

Copyright David Macadam 2012

If you want a graphic expression of how last year’s events have affected Press Freedoms around the world then one should worse than check out the round up by Reporters without Borders Annual Report, a Press Freedom Index, which has just been released.

It does not make good reading for The United States, which makes much of her constitutional rights guaranteeing freedom of expression and the strength of her press.  This year has shown her fall twenty seven places down the table to lie 47^th along with Bahrain.  You can catch more and the whole table at Reporters without Borders.  It’s an interesting read.

Not that the UK should be getting too cocky.  She too has shown a fall down to 28 which is still way above the United States.

The top five states with greatest Freedom for Reporters are all European being Finland, Norway, Estonia, Netherlands and Austria.

And the reason for this disgraceful fall from grace?  Well, that has been laid squarely at the treatment of reporters trying to cover the Occupy Movement.  Many journalists had been arrested covering the Occupy Wall Street Protests.  Many were also beaten, and prevented from covering this issue. So bad did it become that NYPD cops had to be spoken to directly regarding the treatment of journalists.

As the site said:

 “Crackdown was the word of the year in 2011. Never has freedom of information been so closely associated with democracy. Never have journalists, through their reporting, vexed the enemies of freedom so much. Never have acts of censorship and physical attacks on journalists seemed so numerous. The equation is simple: the absence or suppression of civil liberties leads necessarily to the suppression of media freedom. Dictatorships fear and ban information, especially when it may undermine them”.

The price of freedom is eternal vigilance.  President Jefferson.

Copyright David Macadam 2012

Today, Wednesday, saw the Occupy camp at St Andrew’s Square in Edinburgh, which I have reported on before, here closed.

After 100 days, and under threat of forceful eviction, the organisers decided to take the dignified route out, assembling at Edinburgh Sheriff Court in Chambers Street this morning to say that rather than put the taxpayer to the expense of an eviction they would accept the ruling with due pomp and then to march over The Mound and down into the New Town, where they would strike the camp with much ceremony and speeches.

The rather small group above had gathered at the gates of the Sheriff Court, their numbers overwhelmed by Police and mainstream media.  It was rather low key, several of the Police had seemingly given up and wandered off in the direction of the take out coffee shops on George IV Bridge.

The reasons for the need to disband will doubtless be argued over for time to come, but, for what it is worth this is my take.

The organisers rather lost focus and were unable to maintain the initial enthusiasm and allowed discipline at the camp to deteriorate.  Reports started to emerge that the camp became the haven for homeless street drinkers.  “Jaikies”, as the Edinburgh dialect so delicately calls them, were said to have offended the sensibilities of nice people by peeing on trees.  A small fire was put out with much palaver and self conscious publicity on the part of the authorities and letters to the press ensued.  Accusations were made of anti-Semitism after a temporary sculpture was damaged.  It was never established that such damage was the fault of the campers or any supporter, and it was strenuously denied by the organisers.  But the political damage was done.

Support, too, had somewhat fallen off and the camp, latterly after Christmas had a forlorn air.

Despite the gloriously daft Christmas Eve stunt of running up the Jolly Roger on the flagpole on the roof of the Royal Bank of Scotland, the efforts of the camp had become dissipated into a more general complaining of the usual raft of pinko-lefty bête noirs piggy-backing on the bandwagon.  So the Palestinians, the never ending demands for Independence, general Anarchism and any colour of Green whale you might imagine, all found a home here, diluting the message and alienating some of their support among the local unco guid.  Their protest began, as my learned friends might say, to lack specificity.

And so all that hope and passion ended today in a raggle taggle march of the usual suspects plodding away in a thin drizzle?  A damp squib, another glorious failure?

Yes, and then again no.  At its height, the Occupy site hit a nerve with a wide slice of the people of the city receiving much support in the face of the usual campaign against radical leftism that characterises the city.  But unlike their grandparents’ generation during the sixties, the political objectives were allowed to become rather vague and fuzzy.

The central points of inequality, corporate malfeasance and technical incompetence at both corporate and political level, as well as the sin of corporate money distorting the political system as much here as in America, were indeed brought forward to become mainstream.  It was just that Occupy failed to hold the focus and this let the guilty slither away from continuing scrutiny.

So what has been learned?  It clearly politicised a generation previously accused of not showing interest.  The political game itself is now being played to new rules. Social media allows contacts across the globe, a movement becomes global overnight.  Ideas, graphics and tactics can be shared in a second.  New contacts are now established.  Even the age old business of the demo has been given a spring clean.  Gone are the duffle coats, Bob Dylan chants and sensible shoes.  The rise of the “citizen director” armed with mobile phone video streaming broadcast quality footage in real time is ubiquitous.  They even have their own occucopter drones to give aerial coverage.  The Police have found that their use of force simply earns them dreadful publicity and unwanted press attention.  At this moment the demo is a level playing field.

So what’s next?  Well I think Global Swarm on May 12^th looks interesting.

Copyright David Macadam

Copyright David Macadam 2012

The Olympics are coming, and so far have failed to ignite British public imagination, what with the inability of the public to get hold of any of the return tickets, and deep concern that hordes of lost flabby tourists who can’t speak the native London dialect of Urdu will clutter up the traffic and tube looking for directions and make getting across town a nightmare for everyone.

Even the Police are hacked off, what with Police leave cancelled across the entire country, so that the Metropolitan Police can be beefed up with provincial heavies.  Except, that as it’s in the school holidays all these guys are having the family breaks disrupted.  Result -unhappy plod country wide.

No one is that happy actually.

Order Order, a waspish vinegar tongued British blog site dedicated to giving the insiders of British politics a good going over, has let another cat out of the bag.  It seems that so desperate are the Olympic authorities to control the image of their earth shattering event that they are seeking to control the on-line gushings of the accredited blogger who gains admittance to inside track of the sacred turf.  The following instructions were issued.

“…any such postings, blogs or tweets must be in a first-person, diary-type format and should not be in the role of a journalist – i.e. they must not report on competition or comment on the activities of other participants or accredited persons, or disclose any information which is confidential or private in relation to any other person or organisation. A tweet is regarded in this respect as a short blog and the same guidelines are in effect, again, in first-person, diary-type format.

Postings, blogs and tweets should at all times conform to the Olympic spirit and fundamental principles of Olympism as contained in the Olympic Charter, be dignified and in good taste, and not contain vulgar or obscene words or images.”

Dignified?  Dignified from the people who brought you Carpet Bowls? Dignified synchronised swimming and Beach volleyball (great fun sure but dignified?).  Olympic principals?  The same principles that shows the Olympics at every outing  to be riddled with drug taking athletes, betting scandals, and bribery charges against the IOC itself perhaps?  Anyone else remember Salt Lake City 1998, or just the other year the banning of women from ski jumping at Vancouver 2010 on the grounds that they are erm…women.

Principles?  Hilarious.

Copyright David Macadam 2012

Social Media is all the rage and Twitter is simply the latest in the range of tools to be appropriated by Politicians.  As one of those of us old enough, I can remember the complete horlicks Government Departments and Local Authorities made of trying out “Homepages” way back in the 1990’s when they discovered the Internet, and  as a new boy to Twitter myself, I wondered what Moochelle, the US’s sainted FLOTUS was making of it.

Politicians are never done thinking we want to know what they do every moment of their dismal committee driven lives. Twitter then should be perfect for them to share their undigested thoughts, as they flit through their brains and out to the wide world.  It has the potential for sparky sharp little bon mots and aphorisms about life inside the beltway.  It also runs the risk of being like broadcasting the Wit and Wisdom of Prince Philip to an unsuspecting world 24/7.

It seems that the State Department has just discovered “Twitter” and feels it might, just might, save the First Lady from herself if she went on it.  Anything to tone down the impact of that book “The Obama’s” by Jody Kantor.  They clearly think it’s hip and wicked, a right down wid da kids app – so just perfect for Moochelle.  They hope that the American people, once they have an opportunity to meet the real Moochell on Twitter might think better of her, and no longer make disparaging remarks about the size of her arse, her dress sense, the bingo wings and armpits, or gossip that she is said to shout loudly at poor working people who are not in a position to shout back.

So Moochelle has arrived this month on Twitter.  Catch her at @MichelleNews

I thought I might follow her for a while and see if it was good or not.  And, I wondered how First Ladies past might have reacted had they been given the opportunity. Would we have the homey toothsucking homilies of Mam Eisenhower discussing decorative jam pot covers, Jackie Kennedy’s insights into fashion elegance and style, or Nancy Reagan’s horoscope of the day?

Oh God what a mistake. It’s none of these.

Tedium personified.  Clearly they have made damn sure ol’ Moochelle is getting nowhere near the keypads and the whole exercise is being run out of the State Department by someone new, very dull and keen not to make any kind of error whatsoever.  Even if that means it is the most stultifying read imaginable.

People seem to agree.  From an initial following of, it was said, 100,000 she has lost 10% already closing down to 91,036 today.

I mean, does this staffer really have the need to give us the whole damn speech that Moochelle delivers to whatever organisation she has attended?  A little editing here would be good.  And as for the rather stiff photos of the family looking starched and a bit embarrassed, remember Kennedy did it better.

Copyright David Macadam 2012

I thought I would wait a day or so, and once the dust settled see how the people’s revolt of the Internet had gone.  However it is clear, even two days out that the impact of Wednesday is still making waves.

Politically, the establishment have pretended to have woken up to the strength of feeling regarding interference in the web.  They are suddenly making all the right sort of noises and distancing themselves like crazy from this ill thought-out legislation.  To see how sharply the mood on the Hill changed, and also because it is a wonderful graphic and ProPublica have done so much work collating it and because it should be seen by as many people as possible. I reproduce above ProPublica’s list of politicians who, on Wednesday were all for the legislation, and who today have decided on a Damascene conversion.  For the full article with more details and their live updates go to here.

This should be rated a success story.  The people spoke, they wrote emails, so many they crashed servers and they phoned their Representatives and Senators in their thousands all to make the same point.  A shot across corporate bows and a warning that this is, after all an election year.  And so it was a success….to an extent.

However, the establishment are, as establishments always do, playing it both ways.  The Senators and Representatives may be falling over themselves to tell you they never really thought SPOA was a good idea, whilst the Government launches an attack on Megaupload, a file sharing site showing they never needed it anyway.

And the darker side of the Internet community strike back as Anonymous supporters begin targeting Government Agencies such as the Department of Justice and political supporters of SOPA such as the Motion Picture Association of America, with denial of service attacks.

Depressingly, Wednesday was only the opening salvo, in this war without bullets.

Copyright David Macadam 2012

It’s not very often that one has the chance to say I told you so, but today is one.  The video above is ABC’s interview with Newt Gingrich’s ex wife Marianne, where she is talking about Newt’s moral worthiness to be President.  I remember way back in October 2011 saying that Newt was the indefensible Republican and pointing out then, that it was Marianne who had the power to burst his pretentious little bubble of ever being the President.  Then I said the following:

Married for eighteen years, after his earlier, messy, grubby little divorce, Marianne had supported him through thick and thin.  But mostly thick.  The scandals, the defeats have never made it an easy ride.  He rewarded that support by throwing her over for another woman.   He is finding that a Marianne scorned has a sharp tongue etched with bitterness.

“There was something strange and needy about him.   He was impressed easily by position, status, money.  He grew up poor and always wanted to be somebody, to make a difference, to prove himself, you know.  He has to be historic to justify his life”

We will need to wait until after the publication has been widely read to see which way this will run.  But back in the 1990’s Marianne once said she could end her husband’s career with a single interview.

Well, now that she has given the interview, it is clear it will not make life easy for Republicans who want to vote for ol’ fashioned American morality, but is it enough to derail the Newt campaign?

I think it might help some older Republicans find the strength to walk away from a serial hypocrite, but I think that even without the interview Newt’s chances were getting slimmer by the day.   Perry’s endorsement today may, just may, keep him afloat for a state or two.  His problems will continue. Newt might not keep hold of his wives, but in politics what matters is that you keep your dignity.

It was always going to be Romney right from the beginning.  To paraphrase an old song, there are fifty ways to leave your campaign, but this is one of the less endearing – skewered by the bile and pent up spite of a repulsed ex-wife.

Class, ol Newt always had class.

Copyright David Macadam 2012

Wednesday, and the Internet will have a new look.  Dark.  Hundreds of sites across the Internet will either not be posting or unavailable in mass protest against an extraordinary piece of proposed legislation.  SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) and her Senate sister PIPA (The Protect IP Act).

SOPA is something from Orwell’s 1984 which will strike down any website it choses if it believes that that site is using non copyright materials.  So even if you are huge and have 16,000,000 users ever day and one single idiot uploads an MP3 file this legislation would grant a court the right to close you down.  Not just remove the content until the argument is settled but just to shut you down entirely and take your website, or blog off line.

Even if you link to the supposed offending site you might be vulnerable for directing persons to a site proven to be infringing SOPA and be subject to closure.

Effectively the idea would place a China firewall round the United States and isolate her internet from the world.

Do the authorities have to prove any such claims?  No of course not.  This is the new America where you are guilty until you can establish your innocence.

So, who will this actually affect?  Possibly not Facebook or Youtube both of whom are financial giants, well fed with funds, and able to employ the very nastiest lawyers the Legal Establishment can produce to fend the state off.  No, it will be the smaller stuff that I worry about.  The bespoke site dedicated to single interest or specialist concerns, the political blogs, the irritants and the investigators.

So far the Internet has kicked this legislation into touch.  Wednesday is just to remind everyone what they might lose and to remind people how precious the freedom of speech really is.

Copyright David Macadam 2012