"Nice Work, Rummy!"

What happened to 500 billion dollars spent on Iraq and Afghanistan?



You are confronted with that question after you hear about the state of readiness of American forces who are returning to Iraq. Take the Third Infantry Division. In case, you’ve forgotten, they were among the first troops to advance into Iraq during the early days of the War.



Today, many of their brigades are woefully short of the things they need in order to achieve their performance levels. They are low on trucks; low on manpower; low on tanks; many of their vehicles do not have the mandatory armor. In other cases, units are operating at half strength...and in some cases, less. Some units have no tanks! That means a lack of training which would normally be a precondition in a unit facing redeployment. . Many of the people who are fleshing out the ranks are “raw” according to the supervisory personnel.



Among those who have already served, many are not renewing their obligations. Those that are staying are finding that they will have to deploy in a year or less which is half the time that they were supposed to have under the old regs. This has created problems for families who must undergo the uncertainties and challenges of a new deployment in a year’s time.



According to the Pentagon, the military will need another sixty billion dollars for repairs to equipment and materials to bring active units up to their readiness levels. Right now, units when they leave Iraq leave their transportation too…. And the wear and tear on equipment and materials in the Iraqi and Afghanistan Theatres of Operation has left them without adequate distribution or transportation capabilities..



As a result of the increasing stress on combat units, National Guard units are being required to pick up the slack; that, too, is more sacrifice than most Guard members had anticipated. Many are occupied in important service jobs domestically that will leave gaps in areas like policing, fire protection, service and support functions at the local level.



All in all, the Pentagon has been slow to flesh out units that are going back and slow to consider the needs of those who make up the ranks of those who are skilled in their respective MOS. In an army dependent on technology, not having the right people in the right slots is bound to exact a price. And not to have full units to deploy indicates that the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing. And with the threat level growing through-out the Middle East, there doesn’t seem to be an easy solution that will satisfy all parties.



Les Aaron

COMMITTEE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

Where are the Statesmen?

It is interesting to note that with all that is going on in the modern world, aside from Tony Blair and George W. Bush, there are very few other commanding voices that we hear on the global stage that seem to penetrate our consciousness.



Why are there so few distinct voices these days? And what does that auger?

Why are we led to believe that only we define what is urgent and imperative aside from certain dissident voices that are thought to preach reaction and conflict. Might it have something to do with the fact that today in the US, dissident voices are not tolerated or listened to.



If we pursue that thread, we see that we seldom even hear from the democratic opposition or perhaps more pointedly that that opposition is seldom covered by a media that seems less free than before, less willing to explore people’s substantive attitudes, more frightened of its very existence.



We are finding that in schools, too.



At a time when young people should be opening their minds to new thinking and new ideas, there is a strong reactionary and conservative force that suggests that we should be spending more time inculcating our youth with conservative values and religious views. This seems to suggest that the philosophers whose ideas served as the launching pad for this great nation suffer less exposure than the punjabs of materialism, the custodians of social values and the arbiters of conventional thought. What this contribute to is not the expansion of our mind, but defined limits for our personal explorations that establishes barriers to the bold new thinking that has defined this country in the past. The ideas of Locke, Rousseau and Kant take a back seat to Machiavelli, Adam Smith and Samuelson.



So, where do we go from here? Where are the soaring speeches of Mario Cuomo who lift us above ourselves to see our penchant for doing great deeds; where is the inspiring vision of a Delano Roosevelt? Whatever happened to the hopeful future promised under Winston? Have our great leaders abandoned us to a field of mediocrity, a future of lost dreams and hopeless aspirations?



In an atmosphere of “Good work, Brownie,” where mediocrity is applauded, how can we hope for a better vision and a better future?



We have settled on leaders who were fond of Cold War scenarios; suspicions foisted on suspicions; secret games being played out on an arcane board that potentially put us all at great risk.



In a nation where discussion, conversation and dialogue play very little value, the action is sub-rosa and denied to the majority and in addition to that being un-American, it is also frightening in its potential to run roughshod over the institutions that have defined us these last two hundred years.



What concerns me most is that while our leaders shrink before our eyes, we possess a range of technology that requires restraint, understanding and compassion in its use.



If we fail to rise above our present station, I’m afraid that our driving personal and international ambitions will push us towards a tipping point from which we may never return. It is that fear that causes me to yearn for great leadership that is so far behind what we can see now, thatwe should all consult our stars…



Les Aaron

Be Very Wary of Strangers Bearing Gifts...

Beware of Strangers Bearing Impossible Gifts…



Would you follow someone if you knew that he could only achieve absolute perfection through your destruction?



Not me!...



But there is a group who thinks there is nothing wrong with the idea and everything to gain.



The Christian Zionists, a recently created group, led by John Hayden expect you to do exactly that and forget that incidentally they are caught up in the Raptures..





And if you need to be reminded, the Raptures require that all the Jews return to Israel so that their country can be whole again according to Ezekial in order to set the stage for the Second Coming of Jesus which after all is the whole point.



Make no mistake about it. All that stuff that comes before is just a build up to the Final Act and who cares as long as all of the ingredients are in place for the Second Coming….



In this scenario, any Jew who listens to the Christian Zionists present their case has to conclude that it is painfully clear they are only incidental to Zionist plans for Christ’s Second Coming and, consequently, must question whether they are in the view of this Christian group simply sacrificial goats.



John Hayden gets a little fuzzy on some of the details.



He admits that most views of the Raptures is that of Paul’s and involves a lot of blood letting before you get to bed-rock and he simply plays that aspect down saying that Paul’s view does not have the Jews, Arabs, Islamists and all other non-Christians, getting thrown into a pit of brimstone if they don’t convert to Christianity;instead, he seems to tip-toe around some of the darker issues connected with his end of days scenarios .



According to Hayden’s views, in the Gospels, the angels will be sent to earth to explain the resurrection of Jesus before the tribulations and that they will convert and become Christians... Get that "explain..." THat's not my understanding. Anyway Hayden doesn’t even mention the four horseman of the Apocalypse or the horrors associated with nonbiblical interpretations that have become identified with the coming of Armegeddon. These extremist interpretations seem to have been compiled by English zealots of the 18th century or written in subsequent unauthorized biblical versions.



In fact, he reassures us who follow his Christian Zionist arguments that during this period, we will not see the conversion of the Jewish people if they do not want it or the destruction of the Jewish people as some nonbiblical texts have suggested as some prelude to Armegeddon.. In other words, it’s a Disneyfied end of world scenario.



Either way, much impetus for a biblical view of a coming Armegeddon fits right into the purview of our president, a born again Christian who believes deeply in spirituality and metaphysical outcomes as witnessed by his predisposition towards prophecy and End of Days scenarios as opposed to a more balanced view that might suggest a more temporal message of understanding among diverse people.



If approached with such a proposition, I think I would put a Zionist Christian into the same category as the guy who tried to sell me aluminum siding at a special rate. I am sure they will win over lot’s of converts and zealots but they will not include me…



I never buy aluminum siding over the phone.



Les Aaron

Playing Mind Games

I was reading an article that tries to describe what historians are telling kids today that will explain our new role. Some are calling it exceptionalism which relates to the fact that America has and is always different and has a unique role to play in society.
I think that sounds so distorted, it rings of fascism. How about imperialist or globalist or bullying as a fit description.
My friends in education tell me that education has changed since I was involved and that believe it or not, educators havetended to become very conservative. When you start raving about ideas like "exceptionalism" or trying to fit certain new words to describe our militaristic unilateralism with a globalist twist and propaganda overtones, these history professors should really sit back and take stock of the kind of lies they are spreading along with the way they are rationalizing actions. More than anything else, our flitting around the edges with concepts that do not relate to what we've become is worrisome and demonstrates a kind of irrationality that doesn't befit this once great land; in fact, all it does is accentuate the fact that we have moved away from the role of moderator, mediator, conciliator, or our perceived role serving as a kind of balancing gravity that oscillates around equilibrium to bring all of those extremist states back to semblance of rationality. We have lost our objective viewpoint; the truth is the that wehave veered from our historical role and have substituted the export of our views militaristically around the globe instead of serving as a positive example of democracy, equality, and freedom that has been inspiring much of the world for two hundred years.
It's too bad that we can veer so far off target and still think we are identified with the traditional values of democracy.
Perhaps the term deluded and soon to be debunked now better describe us to the rest of the world.

les aaron

A Lack of Leadership

It is interesting to note that with all that is going on in the modern world, aside from Tony Blair and George W. Bush, there are very few other commanding voices that we hear on the global stage that seem to penetrate our consciousness.

Why are there so few distinct voices these days? And what does that auger?
Why are we led to believe that only we define what is urgent and imperative aside from certain dissident voices that are thought to preach reaction and conflict. Might it have something to do with the fact that today in the US, dissident voices are not tolerated or listened to.

If we pursue that thread, we see that we seldom even hear from the democratic opposition or perhaps more pointedly that that opposition is seldom covered by a media that seems less free than before, less willing to explore people’s substantive attitudes, more frightened of its very existence.

We are finding that in schools, too.

At a time when younh people should be opening their minds to new thinking and new ideas, there is a strong reactionary and conservative force that suggests that we should be spending more time inculcating our youth with conservative values and religious views. This seems to suggest that the philosophers whose ideas served as the launching pad for this great nation suffer less exposure than the punjabs of materialism, the custodians of social values and the arbiters of conventional thought. What this contribute to is not the expansion of our mind, but defined limits for our personal explorations that establishes barriers to the bold new thinking that has defined this country in the past. The ideas of Locke, Rousseau and Kant take a back seat to Machiavelli, Adam Smith and Samuelson.

So, where do we go from here? Where are the soaring speeches of Mario Cuomo who lift us above ourselves to see our penchant for doing great deeds; where is the inspiring vision of a Delano Roosevelt? Whatever happened to the hopeful future promised under Winston? Have our great leaders abandoned us to a field of mediocrity, a future of lost dreams and hopeless aspirations?

In an atmosphere of “Good work, Brownie,” where mediocrity is applauded, how can we hope for a better vision and a better future?

We have settled on leaders who were fond of Cold War scenarios; suspicions foisted on suspicions; secret games being played out on an arcane board that potentially put us all at great risk.

In a nation where discussion, conversation and dialogue play very little value, the action is subrosa and denied to the majority and in addition to that being un-American, it is also frightening in its potential to run roughshod over the institutions that have defined us these last two hundred years.

What concerns me most is that while our leaders shrink before our eyes, we possess a range of technology that requires restraint, understanding and compassion in its use.

If we fail to rise above our present station, I’m afraid that our driving personal and international ambitions will push us towards a tipping point from which we may never return. It is that fear that causes me to yearn for great leadership that is so far behind what we can see now, thatwe should all consult our stars…

Les Aaron

Changing Fortunes

Do you believe in hexes? The power of incantations? Do you believe that the simple utterance of a word can change your fate?

Well, you may not but we’re sure that at least one leading candidate does.
That candidate: George Allen.
He not only started early, he started strong. And he looked like a real shoe-in; maybe even a candidate for the presidency in 08!
And if it were not for his predilection for putting his foot in his mouth,he might have been alone in the field today.

As it worked out, he charged a young man of obvious Indian extraction of being a macaca a pejorative term that did not reverberate well within our polyglot society.

Today, Mr. Allen is struggling just to keep up.
And the reason is James Webb, a guy who doesn’t just talk the talk but walks the walk. A man who was a high ranking Vietnam veteran and a former Cabinet official from Ronald Reagan’s White House.

Mr. Webb is now a democrat because he didn’t like what he saw happening to the Republican Party. And James Webb who started small without a bankroll is building up a head of steam.

Today, he has change the standing in the polls. And only a few points separates Mr. Allen from Mr. Webb and if you consider the margin of error, they could be even.
What happened?

Did Allen’s unfortunate remark take him down a notch and make him look vulnerable. Or was his use of language to prove his undoing? Or is it just the inroads being made by a real veteran of a real war?

It is too early to say. But one thing is for sure. Mr. Allen must be kicking himself in the head every chance he gets for not biting his lip before showing how smart he wasn’t.

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change
www.lesaaron.blogspot.com

Author: Ending Chaos: Taking Back the White House
Due out next month…

ASPEN WITHOUT ASPENS

Our government doesn't know its Aspen from a hole in the ground....

Why do I say this?

Aspens are dying everywhere in the West...


Aspens are dying in high areas, low areas, wet areas, and dry areas.

And nobody knows why or what to do about it.

When a species of tree has been succssful here for hundreds of years, its impending loss should catch our attention.

Will the Aspen be our next frog...

Will we do something about this prospective loss...before it's too late?

And what does this say about our concern for our environment?

Stay tuned!

"The Golden Years..."

What’s so wonderful about those Golden Years?

Most of my friends are so invested in protecting or curing their internal parts and talking about them that it seems to leave very little time for what? Living?

I was out gambling with a friend who doesn’t gamble last week and who spent his time telling me about his last half dozen operations, that the nice man sitting across from us popped up and came over to us saying, “you know, before I heard your conversation, I was really feeling good about myself. Now, I am going to drink myself into oblivion” and off he marched. The Golden Years redux….

There’s so much however that they never tell you in the rule books. You know, they’ve got all of these books for babies and young people, but where do they tell seniors how to behave or act or what to look forward to? I’ve never seen one….and let me tell you, half the time we’re adrift just trying to figure it all out before
God says, “that’s enough!...Time’s up!”

I have discovered too what occupies all that newfound leisure time: It’s called looking for things…

Most people in their twilight years, spend countless hours looking for the things that are right under their noses or putting up with people who ask ‘where did you have them last?’ which drives most people to distraction. If you knew where you had them last, why the heck would be looking all over for them?

Into this category the worst two defenders seem to be glasses and keys of which I am blessed with one pair of glasses and about three sets of keys in case I happen to lose one. There is absolutely no hope for someone who loses all three sets which has happened to me on occasion if you can twist my arm to admit it…

What’s worse out of frustration, one party tends to blame the other. “Did you move my keys?” which is usually followed up with, “Dag nab it, woman, why in God’s name would I want to move your keys?”

Typically, if history is any yardstick, it doesn’t end there and can lead to a bloody feud that is either settled by finding the keys and then all is forgiven or the police coming to the door armed with Mace for unruly seniors and bullet proof vests.

You see, we are an unruly group… More and more of us, are also taking to the highways on our Harleys eventually becoming road kill because we couldn’t find our corrective lens or we forgot where we were and where we are going…

I don’t mean to paint a bleak picture. After all, grand-children think we are the greatest thing since sliced bread, parents pay tribute because they’re hoping that we’ll watch the kids when they want to scamper off to Bermuda or are still hopeful that we are going to leave them something after the medical bills are paid.

But in truth, the Golden Years aren’t really all they’re cracked up to be and in some respects are kind of a sick payback for those of us who make it. For example, when you can finally afford a good corned beef sandwich, you can no longer chew it.
Or if you finally afford that big cruise you’ve been promising yourself for thelast forty years, you discover that you get real queasy onboard and are subject to headaches that last two weeks. To add insult to injury, you also get put next to some kind of politically correct imbecile that calls you on your every mannerism or utterance and you begin to think the brig looks good compared to putting up with the company of these idiots for the rest of the cruise…

Bring back those glory days!

Were there really any glory days? I’m not sure. It seems I was always working hard to grow up or be something….or pay the bill….or send the kid to school….or take care of the aunt or my mother-in-law, a thankless task if there ever was one.

I mean she’s 95 and going strong, has all of her marbles, walks like a spring chicken and then proceeds to tell us she wishes she were dead! (Why didn’t she tell me that before we invested in the medical bed, the crutches, the special TV, the medicines and the Assisted Living?)

Why? Because the world doesn’t know the troubles she’s had…. What troubles?, I ask, since I know that her husband gave her a comfortable life, built a nice home, and took away all of her burdens. She retired young after not really working her entire life, went to Florida, went on cruises and bake-outs and did not worry about a thing that anyone can remember—including her children. Now, she’s back and she had to be put in a nursing home because she acts like a petulant little child who won’t eat or take her medicine unless she can stretch your insides first and give you apoplexy.

Now, she loves to point out how many of her roommates have died while she trudges on. I wonder if I should suggest to her that there may be a cause and effect relationship here!
She still misses the child that never shows up!

So here we are charged with nurse-maid duties and a haughty, superior dog who doesn’t like to be ignored and is very needy. Although Brutus’ full time occupation is chasing the critters who inhabit his body and refuse to be vacated, he is perennially hungry, and needful of evacuating simultaneously so between mom and the thing with the tail that some of our guests call a dog, there is little peace or pleasure in having too much leisure time. In fact, it’s a curse.

To tell the truth, I’d rather be working. The folks who take this retirement stuff seriously are for the most part disengaged from what’s happening and belief that the true measure of what you are is determined by Bunko. I still don’t know what this game entails exactly except it involves a lot of emotional jumping between card tables and some professed anxiety.

I used to play poker. But down in my retirement place, it seems that they’re not used to a two fisted, cigar smoking, cursing, New Yorker who is possessed of a million ways of saying that “you are an idiot!” and there’s not too many with our particular brand of humor which kind of between insulting or sarcastic or both who wouldn’t get tossed out after two or three episodes without an apology…. Nor do they gather the kind of snacks we hard drinking, hard living types find essential to maintaining our normally hyperactive psyches. So, although retirement is kind of nice in a distant abstract way, it’s also kind of like being in a place between Heaven and Hell. It’s pretty but it lacks content, my editor might say. A kind of intellectual limbo-like landscape full of empty attractions and boring pleasures….

I would feel a lot better off hanging out with the New York Times or the Realist down by my existential coffee shop, the real thing with ripped leather cushions and dirty windows not some upscale Starbucks full of people who get off speaking in Grande latte codes in some secretive sharing way that shows how much better they are than we…

And if that doesn’t do it, Nature tends to bust one with great humor. My lawn tends to be either dying or growing a foot at a time. I have worn out three lawnmowers and I can’t afford to risk the wraith of my wife or the disdainful look of my neighbors that seems to suggest, “Poor Les; can’t keep up with the grass….the weeds are taking over; closer and closer he gets to Assisted Living…” Damn, I am not going down without a fight. I will never allow my heretical self to be handled like a dish towel, folded and stuck in a bed when I want to my lying on the untended grass staring at the stars above…
No, that’s not for me. When I stop making my own decisions, I am going to dig my own hole, put up an antennae, get a beach chair and just hang out til the Ole Man up above calls out…. There’s no way that I’m going to go off without a fight and who gives a hoot what my Medicare administrator says….

Les Aaron
Contrarian for Life
Like satire, go to:
www.lesaaron.blogspot.com





a

The Truth We Do Not Want to Know...

Here’s the truth. If you don’t want to hear it, read no further.

It will leave you with sleepless nights and migraines.

But to ignore the truth, is to lay down like slaughtered sheep...



We are an optimistic people, almost childlike in our optimism. That was one of the reasons that we could not anticipate what happened with the WTC…



We just didn’t have the ability to imagine it….even though what was happened was part of a plot hatched fifty years before in a jail in Egypt.



The Islamic group responsible for such a disaster on such a scale was unimaginable.



Now, five years has passed and the progress designed to make ourselves safer seems somehow oh so prosaic; we are good at doing the "minimums" and then convincing ourselves that that is enough of a sacrifice which translates into a rationalization that suggests that we really don’t believe anything on the scale of 9/11 might ever happen again.



But mark these words, it will happen again because Islam knows that it can happen again. Further, they know that we don’t have the patience to do what’s needed or the commitment—even to what amounts to our own safety.



For those who think it won’t happen again, ask yourself have we examined all of the possibilities given the realities of the technology, the money the know-how possessed by the side that wants to teach us the most profound lesson at any cost. Do you think that they will stop with the WTC and if they can do something worse with a greater impact that they would not take it on? ,



Whether we are talking about Johannesburg, the Cole, or the WTC, these were well-planned efforts involving those with the will spurred on by private money and hatred of the west. The terrorists practiced, bought flight simulator on the open market, took trips everywhere,

And even went to flight school to better us. What additional convincing do we need as to their commitment, their organization, their financial ability?



Do we think that they won’t do as much?



I predict that the next attack will be one that we may not so easily emerge from.

We must steel ourselves for the worst eventuality.



What could that be? What possibly could they do that's worse?



Well, through our own casual attitudes despite the warning of the Clinton administration, it was possible to buy on the market enriched materials that could be used to build suit-case sized “dirty bombs…”



When Bush was warned, there were 600,000 metric tons on the open market that anyone could buy if they had the knowledge, intent and money to buy it and use it..



Well, thanks to the technical assistance of Pakistan, the wealth of the Arab princes who truly hate us but accept our money and the intent of those who are so inclined to punish us for our “godlessness” we are likely to be the victims of dirty bombs.



What leads to that conclusion?



300,000 metric tons of enriched materials are missing….



And no one seems to want to know what happened to that volume of dangerous material.



As a result, it is safe to assume that at least one dirty bomb has been created through the combined skills of Russian or Pakistani scientists and the available technology on the open market. Remember, these are not nuclear bombs but just devices that are not nuclear but conventional but will, however, scatter radiation in a diameter of ten or fifteen miles rendering an area the size of downtown Washington unusable for decades...



It is also likely supposition that whomever has assembled one bomb, has assembled more.



We have seen the pattern and to induce panic, the terrorists never go for one incident but attempt to link a series of incidents so that they will contribute to a feeling of chaos and hopelessness and scatter destruction over a vast area.



But if the above is a reasonable assumption—and certainly all the parts of the equation are doable—what are we doing to defend ourselves against such an eventuality. Shouldn't we be doing everything in our understanding to protect the people?.

The painful answer: We have not even considered the problem.
Why? Is it because the terrorists are too rational? Because they don't have the understanding? the money? The will?



We know that none of these things is an obstacle to Islamic intentions.



They have the will; they have the money; they have the hatred; but most of all, they have the ability to make it happen.



So why in everything we see and do, we deny that possibility. Shouldn't we be asking our leaders why we are not considering something much worse than we've seen to date? Why we are not putting our money to work helping ourselves; not digging a bigger hole in Iraq..



At the very least, we need is back up and support for such an eventuality assuming that if it were to happen, and there is every likelihood that it will happen, that it will not shut us down as a country. We must go on. And we must prepare for that kind of eventuality.

And while we're about it, do not count on the FBI or the CIA to add much illumination. They have been out of the loop on ever development besides their boots on the ground and their access to information resources that boggle the mind.



If the terrorists are smart, they will look to paralyze our computer networks, destroy our infrastructure, bring down our banking system and paralyze us.



Do we think that they are not capable of thinking these thoughts?



Moreover, if such an expansion beyond 9/11 is not beyond their thinking, what have we done to steel the will of the people to survive; to provide them with sufficient infrastructure to get by until all services are restored; to build redundancy into everything so that if one thing goes down, something will go online to replace it and do that across the board.



The imperative is to get to work to find the kind of abstract thinkers and logicians like the ones the Brits employed during the SEcond World War to figure out what the Germans were doing. It goes without saying that we need to have thinkers who are capable of transcending the solutions that are now being proferred. In terms of funding, we need to look seriously at Congress and admonish them for looking to our funds for survival as a deep pot to fulfill their own pork objectives and impose upon them the utter seriousness of their role in protecting American targets.



In short, we need a drastic overhaul of government. We need a government that is alert and attuned to the real world. This one judging by its vacuous comments and positions seems to take its cues right out of Alice's world; it simply does not and cannot provide the kind of reassurance that they will be able to anticipate the future and what needs to be done to provide the level of protection America needs if we are to survive as a people.



If you can imagine something ten times worse then befell us on 9/11, you can begin to understand the cautions and the concerns of the 9/11 commission that warned us that we have not taken seriously their recommendations and, now, five years later, we are not really as safe as we need to be...and the reason is that the government has failed in its obligations and commitment to the American people.



Every day that goes by, unfortunately, put us one day nearer the realization of the terrorists goals and we seem to drag our heels and seem to announce to the world a failure of vision to see or contemplate the future.



Les Aaron

Planner and Futurist

Who Is Protecting the Air Waves?

News Flash: Germany wins War;
Russia Takes Out US!

If you saw a news flash like this, it would undoubtedly raise your hackles and you'd figure someone was pulling your chain...and get very upset by it.

Now you know how we, the public, feels...

But what if these obviously false headlines were to fall on young impressionistic minds who perhaps did not have a total grasp on events. Might they believe it? This is the danger all the time when fiction poses as fact.

Does it need to be underscored that more than 80% of the public forms their impressions of what's happened in the world from the news they receive from the networks. And you do not clarify the distinctions when you use real names, real events and real people...I am obviously referring to your representation of the events of 9/11--a representation that does not jibe with the facts.

Admittedly, what I am referring to is not pure news but it is posing as fact and theirin lies the danger. In the same way, the JFK movie was dangerous to the truth, your recreation of the events of 9/11 is dangerous to the mind.

If ABC does not honor the responsibility it has as a licensed broadcaster over airwaves that belong to the people, can we believe in anything it says?

If it is so creative and so flexible with the truth, what does this kind of intellectual sloppiness tell us? Here is where you are intellectually and morally fallible: This is not LaLa land, this is serious business; you are talking about an event that has had a longstanding effect on many of us and it is a cheap shot to camouflage causes and misrepresent the facts for what is clearly political ends. You had the choice. You could have made it very clear that this was not about 9/11 but a fictional event. But since you obviously wanted to benefit from association with the event, you have an obligation to the truth. You can't have it both ways!

Moreover, even if the times were neutral, which they are not, I would find this kind of presentation offensive but, perhaps even diabolically political in the sense that we are fast aproaching mid-term elections and knowing the sympathies of everyone connected with this project and the predilection of your parent company.

You have an opportunity now to look fair and objective. If you allow this opportunity to slide, I know that my Internet brethern with their ability to multiply their efforts geometrically, will call you to task and in the end, your ratings which are after all, your reason for being, will plummet.

And the public will not have been served with your political docudrama...

I know myself that I will boycott anything Disney or ABC is involved with for perpetuating this fraud upon our people...and you may be sure, we will provide you with the necessary coverage in our associated blogs.

Les Aaron
The Committee for POsitive Change...

On the Trail of the Crazy Man...

At the start of this entire Iraq mess, among the many shrill voices trying to be heard, I heard only one that made sense. Of course, this individual was a lower level career diplomat who nobody would ever listen to because of his grade level.
But he was experienced and studied on the subject so his voice among the many made the most sense. What he said was that to resolve the problem, what we needed to do was to talk to the tribal chiefs and the leading mullahs who were respected in the land.
My God, man, this is so obvious...and yet everyone was so busy asserting their own will and their own God-like beliefs that his views were totally overlooked. Another, a military man not possessing four stars, suggested that we divide the land into areas for the Kurds, the Shiites and the Sunnis. I don't remember their names but I do know that if we had listened to these two wise beyond the years professionals, we might have avoided spending 400 billion dollars to achieve nothing and we might have spared the lives of more than 2700 young men and women--our most precious resources--and the disfigurement and maiming of countless thousands more in a pursuit that is totally senseless!....and we might have avoided having all of Islam poised against us and the disharmony that now reigns supreme in our land. All because we follow a crazy man...

The Enemy of My Enemy....

Be Careful What You Wish For...


Let me see if I have this right.

We know bin Laden is at the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan...

We have sent troops in to catch bin Laden since we have labeled him the world's leading terrorist.

And Pakistan's minister says as soon as they get bin Laden, they will turn him over to us...

However, Pakistan has just completed a private deal with bin Laden not to invade his turf.

That means Pakistan is providing bin Laden and the Tailiban sanctuary.

But Pakistan receives aid from us...

And we call them our best ally in the Middle East....

We've also turned a blind eye to the fact that Pakistan also
provides sanctuary for nuclear weapons mailing house that has helped countries all over the world to develop their nuclear capability. Yet, we refuse to do anything because Pakistan is our ally...

So right now, we are determined to take bin Laden; but we can't take him because our leading ally is protecting him.

This is all very perplexing...

Meanwhle, we continue to fight a war in Iraq to eliminate all of the terrorists who attacked New York, even though there were no terrorists in Iraq who attacked New York.

Nothing Like A Good Ally...


And now all of the Islamists who were originally sympathetic hate us with a passion for destroying their country in an attempt to bring them the joys of democracy.

Thanks to Democracy, more than 100,000 innocent people have been killed or maimed; people are afraid to send their children to school, there is no running water and only minimum electricity despite the fact that we spent four hundred billion dollars to bring them all of the benefits of the west!

And for all of our sacrifice, we have earned every Iraqi's enmity...

Got it?

Now, explain it to me...

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change

Blue Or Red?

I don't know whether I'm blue or red anymore or even any one color--probably more purple...

I do know that my face gets read every time I see Mr. S**t for Brains on TV with his insults to my intelligence. I've already kicked in my share of TV's but they say that's better than getting apoplexy and rolling around the floor screaming
"I hate that son of a bitch!"
And I know I get blue every time they try to con me with how well the Amercan economy is doing when every time I flip on the TV I see another big manufacturer going overseas so he doesn't have to pay taxes and can buy labor by the penny...

I also get blue every time I think of how we've abused the environment, dug up our beautiful country for a few drops of oil or to steal our heritage of ancient growth trees and it makes me blue to see how we've poisoned the air and made the water undrinkable.

I get a little red in the face, however, when Bush & Company tell me that I'm a traitor because I don't buy his program of intimidation and control. I get red, too, when I hear the crap about his values being better than my own. I get red when he tells me I'm not a patriot when I've served my country in two wars...whereas he and his cabal have avoided service to their country every chance they got.

I get red also when they try insulting my intelligence about how good everything is...I don't think it's too good for those tens of thousands of young men and women who were killed in a needless war!....I don't think it's too good for the families of 9/11 who realize that this disaster could have been avoided if these arrogant pups had bothered to look at what was going on around them.... I don't think it's good for the 46 million Americans who don't have health care. I don't think it's good for the 37 million families who live below the poverty level. I don' think it's good for the rest of us who are paying outrageous prices for prescription drugs and health care depriving many of us of the basic essentials of life. I don't think it's good that we can't balance the budget; that we are investing hundreds of billions of dollars in a Star Wars program that's laughable when we could be educating our children so that they can get good jobs. I don't think it's good when all the quality jobs are moving offshore or that we're helping India put together a nuclear program in exchange for imports of some Indian fruit. I don't think it's good that tens of thousands who went to help during 9/11 are coming down with all kinds of diseases and the government says that the results of most studies pinpointing blame is inconclusive. No, I don't think any of these things are good!

I get blue thinking about how much hope I had under Clinton. I think about how Clinton put us on a sound footing again and really cared about the condition of his fellow man.

And I can't help getting red in the face when I think about how this cabal only thinks about itself and its own interests and doesn't care one whit about the rest of the people of this once great country-- a government that would sooner sell us out than lose a penny of profit.

I am red in the face, too, because this government thinks that I owe them some loyalty. I don't. You don't. Loyalty is something that needs to be deserved. And we don't owe this government one red cent!

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change
www.lesaaron.blogspot.com

News or Fluff: What's the Difference?

With all of the issues we are confronted with, why is there such little passion?

And that is troublesome.

Have the American people lost their zest for the truth?...
Have the American people been so effectively brain-washed?
Don't we care anymore?...

There seems to be an element of all three in what we find...

This conclusion was precipitated by watching one of the most credible sources around last night, Charlie Rose.

He is perhaps one of the few interviewers who tries to keep to an even keel, yet if you analyze most of his shows, he and his guests always seem to be deferential to the president, give him the benefit of the doubt every single time, never question his motives or provide a really in depth critique of his actions...although they pretend to do so. It's actually disturbing to see how many passes the man from Texas really gets...

In that sense, and Russert falls into this category,too, even though he puts up a pretty good smoke screen along with all of the Top Guns on the evening news.

So, what's going on?

Are they being exceptionally loyal to the president at the expense of the people?

Do they think that loyalty is more important than the truth?

Or are they being prevented from being more incisive, more penetrating in their analysis?

WHile they all seem capable of asking some tough questions,that's where the hard reporting ends. Right there at the question, itself. There is no rigorous give and take, no penetrating analysis, no being put on the spot.

They don't point out the lies, the distortions, the mistruths, the ambiguities that many of their interview subjects resort to in order to appear loyal Americans committed to freedom, the Constitution and the American way.

And this is damaging to not only the truth but what we believe is fundamental to democracy. And when the interview subject quotes memorized chapter and verse from his script, nobody seriously takes issue....which leads to the conclusion that there is no such thing as serious objective reporting going on. Instead that's been replaced by feel good talk, the stuff of entertainment. The hard probing element is dispensed with.

Why?

Why shouldn't the public get the benefit of the truth from those they entrust with such responsibility? The truth is that most of us are done a disservice by the way the news is presented in this country. And if we look back at NETWORK, perhaps it's time for all of us to stick our heads 0ut the window and admit that we are mad ...."and are not going to take it anymore!"

les Aaron

We Are Being Lied To About The Wounded...

The Hidden Truth We Can’t Seem to Believe



How long can they keep them all bottled up?



Who?



The tens of thousands of GI’s kept under cover in military hospitals and on bases in Germany and Walter Reed and other hospitals around the country….



Many of these men and women would have died because of the horrendous nature of the car bomb injuries were it not for the extraordinary skills of today’s surgeons.



Yet, many are sightless with missing limbs and facing perhaps decades of additional care in our facilities.



However, there are serious signs that our government has been backing away from its commitments. Some are being told that their benefits are running out; others told that there is nothing else treatments can do for them…suggesting that the government is getting ready to wash its hands of them…



As news of these veterans begins to come out, it will constitute an issue of such magnitude that we can’t even begin to grasp it right now.



The problem is that there are many more seriously wounded that are tucked away in bases than anyone knows or suspects. They are kept undercover in deliberate ways being told things like if you leave the base, you will lose your treatment rights, etc.



I’ve heard these stories as a former Veterans Adviser and it is important that the word get out to the American people.



And if you doubt what I say, try to get an accurate count of wounded from any government official. They will waltz you every which way but towards an answer that you can believe in.



But the truth is that when the ranks of the wounded are increasing geometrically due to a lack of support and the right equipment, the truth cannot be held back forever.



These troops are angry and disappointed and feel they deserve better.



Sooner or later, it will all come out and there will be hell to pay; only, by then, Bush will be back at the ranch and Cheney and Rumsfeld will be enjoying their new estates on the east bank of the Chesapeake feeling no guilt and no responsibility.



One wonders if there really is justice anymore….



Les Aaron

The Armchir Curmudgeon

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It Happened Before New Orleans...

Breaking the Social Contract


New Orleans wasn’t the first time…

We tend to see New Orleans as America’s first example of the government turning its back on the people; misrepresenting their needs and intentionally ignoring the facts. That should have been our first clue.

And while certainly it was reprehensible that the government could or would employ such tactics, we should be cognizant of the fact that it happened before.

After 9/11, when the first responders started coming down with a wide range of unusual symptoms, Christy Whitman as EPA representative showed up on scene to calm everyone’s fears. If you recall, she had the temerity to claim that conditions were not dangerous or deleterious for “first responders” according to the studies run by her department.

Sadly enough, we believed her…

Later on, a more detailed study by another agency discovered that the reports of the EPA had been toned down and modified before being released. This independent report suggested that there was greater danger of exposure to the toxic substances than originally reported.

Admissions by both coroners and medical experts at Mt. Sinai hospital many months later seemed to reaffirm the agency’s findings and differed in major ways with the findings of the EPA, yet both the city and the federal government said that the results of their testing and examinations conducted after the deaths of the “first responders” were inconclusive. Since that date, many additional workers have been diagnosed with disease connected to their presence at the World Trade Center on or after 9/11.

The government has been slow to admit its guilt but the fireman and other ‘first responders’ have not forgotten that the government has ignored their pleas.

If they leave their jobs or turn their back on the government’s request should we face another disaster, who will take their place knowing that we cannot trust our government
To protect us and that if we do get involved, more than likely we will be on our own…

For most of us, we were brought up to believe that if anything happened to those who helped their country, they would be taken care of. This has not happened since GWBush has taken office.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

Confessions of a Super Power...

We won the Gulf War and that was the end!...

It was the end of the military as we knew it. The Military Air Command was dismantled. The Strategic Air Command that kept us safe for 46 years was dismantled...as were other units of the military responsible for our glorious win...

After our celebrated victory--a victory that made it clear we were the world's only super power , orders came down to dismantle the “winning” forces, cut staffs and become a world power in name only. Readiness to respond to any challenge was reset from the thirty minutes it took to get a SAC bomber into the air to today's readiness standard: four years!...or even longer. That’s right, the Pentagon’s view was that we didn’t have another threat; herefore, we didn’t need the elaborate infrastructure that was in place that guaranteed our "readiness" and our win!. Staffs of the Air Force were cutby 29%; military subcontractors fell out of the loop.



Our major electronic components were now being supplied by our ally, Japan. China was a major subcontractor for military components. According to one Japanese expert, in ten years Japan could change from an ally into an enemy. Then what would we do for the specialized parts that are so much a part of our weapons systems?



Today, the Pentagon says that they are aiming for a military where 15% of the Army is replaced by robotic devices… The push to replace humans with machines is uppermost in the strategies of the Military. However, one thing has not changed.



It will still take us four years or more to meet a major new military challenge.



Not only do we no longer have an industry capable of turning out sophisticated instrumentation and controls, we no longer have a machine tool industry which is the essential building block of any manufactured product...we have minimum output domestically of bearings, those little marble like things that keep every mechanical thing running... .



To think we would need four years to anticipate the future of this country is a travesty we can ill afford; yet nobody’s doing anything about it and we seem to blunder on burying our incompetence under a carpet that is getting lumpier all of the time.



In the Iraq debacle, if we take the time to investigate how nearly four hundred billion dollars was spent with absolutely no positive outcome for our investment, we can begin to see the glaring inefficiencies, the misallocation of billions of dollars—one of the major subcontractors can’t even account for billions of dollars—the corruption and misappropriation that has characterized the American effort. For this and this alone, this president and his administration need to be replaced if for no other reason.



Today’s Air Force has replaced its perfectly serviceable F19’s, F22’s, F18’s and replaced them with a new all purpose jet fighter/bomber; only the cost per new fighter is about ten times the cost of the old fighters; double what was originally quoted by the subcontractor. Why? The Pentagon and the procurement divisions simply allowed their competitors to merge or go out of business. Why not? The taxpayer was going to pay the freight anyway! Another abuse that the public doesn’t seem to know about or what’ worse, care about and so the abuses go on and on.



Where do we go from here? Well, the startling truth is that the military seems to be our strong suit. In the interests of a strong military, we have virtually ignored everything else—education, science, technology (for nonmilitary purposes), manufacturing, alternative fuels and other areas of growth where we need a strong foundation to compete in today’s world. Something to think about when it comes time to exercise our vote.





Best wishes and 'happy dreams',



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon.

The Cost of Drugs Could Drive You to Drugs

The Real Rationale for Higher Drug Prices...

les Aaron


Some people ask me why are over the counter and proprietary drugs so high now?

And there's a very easy and perhaps smug answer: Because they can be...

Let me explain: In the past, when there was a Chairman of FDA who really tried to do his job, there was monitoring of drug prices.

Today, the attitude seems to be, "Hey, you want to raise prices, just throw a few sheckels in my war chest and I will look the other way..."

That's the real problem: Everyone has chosen to look the other way.

Even if I wanted to, it would literally be hard to chronicle the abuses of the pharmaceutical industry because they are so widespread, so complex and so completely driven by profits.

Let me just give you a few simple examples:

The Drug Companies lobbies tell us over and over again that the drug prices have to be so high because those prices cover all of their investments in coming to market with a new product, they are meant to cover research and development, trials, studies, etc.

The only trouble is that everybody takes their word as verifiable proof and instead of doing their job of "policing" those who belong to the Pharmaceutical manufacturing associations, they tend to accept what the drug companies tell them. That's mistake number one.

The truth is that in a certain sense what the spokesperson says is true, but it obfuscates and hides the truth that prices really not only cover research and development, they cover personnel costs from day one even though you might not have a single staff member, they cover projected marketing expenses, and they cover a built in profit that's bigger than anyone should expect.

Several years ago, the pharmaceutical industry and its auditors explained that it cost 700 million to over a billion dollars to introduce the average new product.

Later on, independent auditors not under the thumb of the FDA or the pharmaceutical companies suggested that the real cost for introducing a new product was really more in the neighborhood from 30 million dollars to about 120 million dollars--quite a disparity from what the drug companies were saying...

Here's another little point mostly overlooked by everyone whose not looking to make waves.
The raft of new products whose patent rights are ending have come out with replacement products even though the original products are, in most cases, better than the new products, are priced higher. Detail men and other marketing types are advertising the heck out of the new products and telling their people to tell doctors and others in the distribution channels that the older products are not as good as the newer products, and discourage generics.

Guess what happens?

The prices of the new products go up and there are no generic equivalents of the older products...

Clearly, our representatives in Congress remind me of the Pakistani police who make a big deal about finding bin Laden, but if he showed up, they would ignore him like the plague.
Nobody wants to rock the money lobby...
And who suffers?

That's right! Thank TV advertising, brother, it's the cause of most of our politicial ills.

Les Aaron

The Cost of Drugs Could Drive You to Drugs

The Real Rationale for Higher Drug Prices...

les Aaron


Some people ask me why are over the counter and proprietary drugs so high now?

And there's a very easy and perhaps smug answer: Because they can be...

Let me explain: In the past, when there was a Chairman of FDA who really tried to do his job, there was monitoring of drug prices.

Today, the attitude seems to be, "Hey, you want to raise prices, just throw a few sheckels in my war chest and I will look the other way..."

That's the real problem: Everyone has chosen to look the other way.

Even if I wanted to, it would literally be hard to chronicle the abuses of the pharmaceutical industry because they are so widespread, so complex and so completely driven by profits.

Let me just give you a few simple examples:

The Drug Companies lobbies tell us over and over again that the drug prices have to be so high because those prices cover all of their investments in coming to market with a new product, they are meant to cover research and development, trials, studies, etc.

The only trouble is that everybody takes their word as verifiable proof and instead of doing their job of "policing" those who belong to the Pharmaceutical manufacturing associations, they tend to accept what the drug companies tell them. That's mistake number one.

The truth is that in a certain sense what the spokesperson says is true, but it obfuscates and hides the truth that prices really not only cover research and development, they cover personnel costs from day one even though you might not have a single staff member, they cover projected marketing expenses, and they cover a built in profit that's bigger than anyone should expect.

Several years ago, the pharmaceutical industry and its auditors explained that it cost 700 million to over a billion dollars to introduce the average new product.

Later on, independent auditors not under the thumb of the FDA or the pharmaceutical companies suggested that the real cost for introducing a new product was really more in the neighborhood from 30 million dollars to about 120 million dollars--quite a disparity from what the drug companies were saying...

Here's another little point mostly overlooked by everyone whose not looking to make waves.
The raft of new products whose patent rights are ending have come out with replacement products even though the original products are, in most cases, better than the new products, are priced higher. Detail men and other marketing types are advertising the heck out of the new products and telling their people to tell doctors and others in the distribution channels that the older products are not as good as the newer products, and discourage generics.

Guess what happens?

The prices of the new products go up and there are no generic equivalents of the older products...

Clearly, our representatives in Congress remind me of the Pakistani police who make a big deal about finding bin Laden, but if he showed up, they would ignore him like the plague.
Nobody wants to rock the money lobby...
And who suffers?

That's right! Thank TV advertising, brother, it's the cause of most of our politicial ills.

Les Aaron

Endangered Species

As an activist for endangered species, I had a rude awakening the other day: I just realized that we qualify. I mean if you've been watching TV, 20-20 had a program on the other day that talked about the seven most likely events that would wipe us out as a people and/or planet. Then there's been program after program about the terrorists coming to get us, hurricane Katrina and her successor which could come at any time, Global Warming, Little Ice Ages, terrorists in Iran.... It means, and you guessed it, we are now the Endangered Species...

I was truly depressed. I mean I'm used to fighting for others but never thought I'd have to fight for myself.

There's the probability of a cometary collision...

An cataclysmic earthquake under one of the State Parks that will spew enough emissions to blanket us for the next few decades and that everything will die. Hey, that means us.

Or they even talked about intergalactic flashes that would blind us and boil off the oceans and leave us walking around blind without any oceans, not that we would notice.

There was even talk of Black Holes and how they would suck us in after stretching us until we looked like a piece of taffy.

And that was only the top Seven. How many more things are waiting to boil us, freeze us, suck us in...

It's pretty awesome....and depressing at the same time...

However, I have my own theory.

I think it's because we here on earth thought with our little atom bombs and our powers, we didn't need to worry about Nature.

And we started abusing the heck out of her. We put trails all over the place in pristine areas. We pumped poisons in the ground to extract minerals. We filled the air with CO2 without giving a thought to it. We poisoned the water. Then the air. And now we're bitching and moaning because Nature is flexing her muscles a little.

Hey, maybe we should all recognize that Nature deserves a break.. That we should think twice before we start abusing her left and right. And maybe extend to her a little respect!

Maybe we should even back off from some of our exploitive tendencies and start asking forgivenesss from a much maligned Nature that is now giving us a taste of our own medicine. And if you have any doubt who would win in this kind of a contest, you should head back to the drawing board.

Anyway, I'm sorry for mouthing off but us endangered species have a right.

And I figure I might as well use it now; I may not have another chance.

Les Aaron
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