The Department of Diplomacy Not!...

The Department of My Way or The Highway.





What is interesting about the current government is that their interpretation of diplomacy is to beatthe other guy senseless with a cudgel and then expect him to buy into your self-serving lies.



To my way of thinking, diplomacy has always been about is taking those with different opinions and subtlely engaging them, eventually turning them around to your way of thinking. To hear that our highest ranking diplomats now take the position that they will not “talk” to those countries who don’t agree with our flat view of the world, seems to be entirely wrong-headed. Why even bother to have a State Department if you have no intention of being diplomatic in the first place. Perhaps they should call it the Department of Heavy Hands because in order to wn any kind of currency with this department, you have to start out agreeing with their point of view. It is the world of Alice writ large.



According to my estimates, that leaves Mexico and Britain who seem to agree with us at least about fifty percent of the time. And the rest of the world viscerally and intellectually opposed to America’s position on just about anything.



It wasn’t always this way. In the past, America enjoyed considerable good will but we fritted it away with our demands and our lies.



At the time of 9/11, virtually any country in the world would have cooperated with us on just about anything but our cudgel-bearers in DC decided that not only did they have to agree with us, they had to bend over and kiss our ring before we would acknowledge them as our true friends and supporters.



In the meantime, we had convinced ourselves that we were unbeatable and that America could do anything it liked on the world stage; unfortunately, that sort of attitude had just the opposite effect on the world’s stage; it took England to save our backsides on more than one occasion and for their support, we failed to reciprocate, forcing Tony Blair into a losing battle to save face and his job.



We are now probably the only leading country in the world with no friends. Even most Canadians who have shown their unrequited love for things American, are starting to turn their backs on our policies…and were it not for all of the trade, they might snub their noses at us as well…



So, we have a State Department with players that will visit nobody because practicing diplomacy is verboten and we have a growing list of people who wouldn’t play ball with us even if they hated the other guys and we were the last country in the world.



Our former allies, in recognition of the shifting that is going on in the world, are rushing to carve new alliances and form new associations sans America and we have yet to ask ourselves why or seem to care. This seems rather odd behavior considering that we are so needful of other places to make our products and send us their high tech people so that we can fire all those domestic technology gurus who make way to much money to assure the top guys their 500 million dollar bonus checks.



It is an interesting conundrum: The House of Diplomacy that refuses to practice its craft unless you already believe in the world according to the way they see it. In the land of Bush, there is no questioning, there is no proof, there is no doubt, you either buy into what they are peddling or you are immediately persona non grata.



Some day at Harvard, they may began offering a comedy course on the Bush style of government using it as an example of policies that are, well\, “bushed.” But in the meantime, in the age of miracle weapons that keep our military industrial complex living according to the style they are accustomed to, there is a potential for miscalculation that could lead to a world conflageration because we thought that they thought…. You get the point!



Of course, all of this makes good sense in the Land of Alice and the Mad Hatter but doesn’t score many points in the land of red phones and threat vs. counter-threat.



Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change

Phony Liberalism Masks Bias and Hatred...

This is probably the last post I ever thought I’d have to write.

Since 1999, I’ve posted at least one or more original essays and editorials a day.
Of all of them, this may be the hardest one I’ve had to write. Why? because it’s forced me to look inside a movement that I have been connected to all my life: the liberal movement.

But a lot of stuff being bandied about the liberal websites have nothing at all to do with liberalism; in fact, they are their polar antithesis. People are telling me they are liberals in one breath and then proceed to spread out hatred and ignorance in the next. Because of this, it may be necessary for me to think seriously about whether this label still applies to me and my views.

I always thought that progressives were fundamentally liberals who changed their appellation because it was too freighted with baggage. After all, weren’t we liberals the cause of everything bad that happened to America? We were responsible for wanting peace even though we served our countries. We were labeled cowards, “pinkos” and other pejorative terms by those who were accustomed to blaming others for everything; never admitting their own culpability.

Weren’t we the reason so much money was spent on domestic programs to improve health care, education and training in America? And aren’t we responsible for the National Debt? Certainly you would think so if you listened to those tight lipped Republicans who were eager to find appropriate scape goats; never mind that the millionaires among them never refused one social security payment.

But to me, liberalism meant that you were willing to embrace change and possibilities. You were willing to forgive. And you were willing to bring more people into your tent. I stayed with the Rainbow Coalition because I believed it hewed to those values til it fragmented into a disorderly group of special interests who seemed to have less and less in common with what I considered to be liberal values. I had a lot of company, too, and as soon as Jackson started to consort with the radicalized elements of his party, the real liberals just kind of evanesced. And with good reason.

I was brought up to believe that liberals and progressives were made up of people of every description and ethnic group and that they could all find common ground; that we all fundamentally believed in the same things; that all people had value; that all people should have equal opportunity under the law; that all people should have equal education and medical care and opportunity.

What a shock then to read carefully many of the posts on some of the best known posts these days that lay claim that liberal and progressive roots. Well, folks, after reading and being a member for years, I am disheartened; the kind of stuff that I have been reading is biased, slanted, accusatory; it is a view that sees the world as us and them and, quite frankly, they are more hateful than some of the conservative sites that I have received mail from and that is a blow to me to me personally. The truth is that many of these people who inhabit these sites know nothing of liberal values and are pretenders at best.

What I have seen is not an attempt to embrace or include but a philosophy that is exclusive and polarized; a perspective that suggests that Republicans and Greens are not worthy of redemption at any cost. I have heard so much hatred spewed by ethnic people that I can’t believe I am listening to so-called progressives claiming entitlement to the progressive banner. It is literally sickening and demoralizing to be lumped among them.

I am so overwhelmed with this hatred and the arrogant, self-righteous spewing of negativity and shibboleths that don’t really apply that I realize the only path back is to start jettisoning lists that don’t monitor their people and give them free reign to saying anything irresponsible under the mantle of “free speech.’ Yes, free speech but not free speech to slander or spread lies and then get all sanctimonious when somebody catches up with you for being biased or expressing wild-eyed hatred for no good reason.

Hopefully, this is only a temporary interlude and that true liberals and those who call themselves progressives will reappear to assert their values of decency and fair play. We can only hope so. In the meantime, I will exercise the power to “delete” until we can all speak freely without rancor in an atmosphere of hope and reconciliation.

Les Aaron

A Chance to Make a Difference

The Choices We Face:

Okay, folks, here are the circumstances: With a growing population, we are told that we must add capacity. And here are the hard choices which are not hard choices at all if we think about them objectively and rationally: We perpetuate the status quo which means that we add more coal burning capacity (We make electricity at Indian River from coal).

Right now, I have learned that we are currently burning a full railroad car full of coal a day. That means if we do not change the status quo, we shall be increasing our current consumption as needs increase. We should be asking ourselves what that means in real terms. The short answer: Despite the promises of coal gasification, the process does not eliminate toxins from entering the atmosphere or the water-ways. The alternative: We vote for clean energy in the form of proven wind power.

Presently, scientists tell us that the burning of fossil fuels in the environment will contribute to 20,000 more deaths per year. Moreover, under the newer methods being touted by the coal industry for Delaware, those effluents which include metal heavy residues that are toxic will be dumped into the water-ways which will not only add toxins to the oceans, it will change the acidity levels and raise the temperature of the water-ways contributing to global warming. The University of Delaware has also prepared computer projections of global warming’s effect on water levels and erosion. Suffice it to say that if we continue with the status quo, Delaware will be unrecognizable within the next fifty years.

Now, some people still play hardball about the argument for global warming. They will find fault with it for no other reason than to find fault with it. But the more thoughtful scientists, those whose lives are not dependent on a government check, will admit that global warming is a fact of life. For those few remaining Doubting Thomases, we refer you to the duck syndrome: You know, if it looks like it contributes to global warming, it acts like it’s contributing to global warming, and it has appreciably raised temperatures in real world terms, then coal, like other fossil fuels does impact global warming. Anyone who doesn’t accept that argument simply is turning his or her back on a wealth of evidence that points strongly in that direction or he’s part of the lobby to promote the status quo..

Moreover, while the consumer may face additional health problem, using more coal instead of less is not going to lessen the amount of his bills or make any other contribution to the improvement in life in Delaware. In fact, increased coal consumption may cause some people to question why there are living in a state that places human life below the benefits of big contributions to campaign chests. A question many may begin to ask themselves if we cannot get beyond the status quo. THE BOTTOM LINE: OUR POLITICIANS NEED TO BE REMINDED THAT THERE FIRST OBLIGATION IS TO THE WELFARE OF DELAWARE CITIZENS.

On the other hand, we all have an opportunity to serve as a beacon here for the rest of the country by showing what real leadership is capable of.

We know from the evidence that wind power works! This is not something new: Wind power has been around for generations and works! We know that we can achieve all of our goals with the use of wind generators that have come a long way since the early days of wind generation. They are now being placed mostly in deeper water; they are larger, create more energy and store the energy through the system.
What’s more, we can generate enough wind-power to sell it to other power users in the north-east corridor.

Best of all, \wind power uses natural resources and does not make demands on any other resource; it is clean and can satisfy all of our energy needs and it can save us money, preserve our fish population, contribute to cleaner air and cleaner water. .
And, most of all, according to a study by the U of D over 90% of people who responded prefer it over conventional fossil fuels…

Most of us also realize that Delaware is a beautiful state whose beauty should not be despoiled by conventional fossil fuels that poison the air and the sea. Many of us came here to enjoy Nature but in the past ten or fifteen years, studies of the Inland Bays show an increase in mercury and other metallic contents that affect the quality of the fish that we catch and the water we drink. In view of these deleterious trends that do not auger well for the airways or waterways that we act responsibly and make the kind of decisions now to keep Delaware a travel destination that we can all appreciate. No doubt about it, it will take courage to do what is right but our representatives have given us no reasonable reason why we should not break the mold and go with clean and healthy wind power over more of the same solutions that only befoul our air and water.

It’s time to remind our government and elected officials why they were elected before they come to cast their votes for new energy resources for Delaware. It’s the one time that concerned citizens need to show they support clean energy, energy we can be proud of that not only contributes to a lessening of global warming but keeps our water-ways healthy and our future’s free of concern.

Thank you.

Les Aaron-Friedlieb
Business Planner, Consultant

An independent Delaware voice for healthy choices…

The Committee for Positive Change

Strange Odors and Lifeless Birds...

What a great time for conspiracy theorists.



Even if you have been a lukewarm believer in the dangers of the Council on Foreign Relations or the arcane powers of the Bilderbergers to change the world we live in, the past six years have been rich with the opportunities to dredge up all your suspicions and give them added weight in the atmosphere of opaqueness and obfuscation that characterizes a ‘what’s in it for me and my friends’ mantra.



Consider that just two weeks ago something happened that was simply touched on and immediately forgotten by the media. But the strange thing about what happened was that nobody can ever remember anything that ever duplicated it! What I am referring to was the strange odors that pevaded the nostrils of virtually everyone all across Manhattan. After meetings at the highest levels by the Mayor, the Chief of Police and other high officials, nobody knew what to make of it…. And after some wringing of hands, it all quietly disappeared. Til today, nobody know’s what caused it! Was it a conspiracy? Did somebody spread a slow acting poison that attacks the nervous system? Was it benign?



But it didn’t end there: On the same day, residents of a Texas City woke up to discover half of its pigeon population lying dead! And, oddly enough, the same exact thing happened on the same day half-way across the world in Australia!



What are the chances that all of this could have been due to coincidence?.



About the same chance as me winning the Lottery! Not very possible at all…



And while nobody is revisiting these three incidents, they cause an old conspiracy theorist like me to wonder why these three strange events happened at the same time on the same day linking events around the world.



It is all too strange, too bizare to write off in my opinion.



What was really happening here? Was America and Australia testing their detector and sensor systems in the event of a renewed threat from the army of terrorists waiting to bash us? Or were the deaths of thousands of pigeons in Texas and Australia a test to determine what might happen to people if a specially modified biological agent was released on the American public? Or was it something else?



Based on the improbability of something like this happening, it appears that is motivated and guided by some form of intelligence. .



And Americans in positions of leadership, for perhaps good reason, do not want to seem to probe beneath the surface. In the meantime, we still don’t know who sent out the toxins in the envelopes to liberals in the media and the government despite the fact that they were milled to such a fine point that only one lab we know of could have produced them. Considering that we had the FBI’s best sleuths on the job, it is not only disturbing but problematical that as of this time and date, we still do not know who the culprit is...or what may be worse, we are not being told.



Food for thought for a government that stirs more questions than it answers.



Les Aaron

www.lesaaron.blogspot.com

THE ARMCHAIR CURMUDGEON

A Little Helping Hand From A Few Friends...

It is shaping up that Congressional Republicans are showing perhaps more moxie than other democrats. And it may be the Republicans in the end who bring the House of Bush down with little help from House Democrats who seem to have little taste for conflict.

It is clear that Bush tends to straight-arm House Democrats through his "inexorable force" but increasingly he is running into the unyielding republicans who are unhappy about his Iraq policy and other things including the fact that he has refused to act to settle the problem of illegal aliens in this country. In fact, at least two of the new Republican candidates for president are running on an Anti-Bush platform because of his failure to do precisely that, design a platform for dealing with "illegals." American policy should not be about making sure that your "friends" have enough workers to guarantee their profits at the expense of American unions and legal workers, it should be about serving the interests of all Americans.

We see examples of this time after time. In fact, it is hard to find one single piece of legislation that is not self-serving or cater to a narrow interest. Much of this has not been revealed or discussed by the media which has failed in its commitment to the American people and it has been facilitated by the look the other way, wink! wink! form of government that has prevailed ovler the last seven years of Hell!

If Bush insists that he is not going to abide by Congress' wishes, it's time to stiffen our resolve and take him down. But as of now, no one has shown the moxie to take that assignment on...

Les Aaron

www.blogspot.com

Looking for the Wrong Things...

I am totally concerned that the entire population of this country has misread the intentions of this cabal that is running the country.

We are judging the president’s performance by how well he serves what we perceive as the best interests of this country. This is fitting because most president’s seemed wanting to fulfill their commitment to the American people and leave a legacy that they can be proud of.

Therefore, we are inclined to wonder why Bush seems so contrary, so interested in pursuing his own course which seems contradictory to the best interests of this country.

We raise questions about his contradictory nature, his “stubbornness, “ his inability to change direction.

But if you approach this subject from a different way, you may discover that his instransigence is intentional. He is not veering from a course of action because that course of action has to do with his narrow agenda and nothing at all do with what is best for America.

We knew at the very beginning that we were hiring a dynasty that was focused on oil and oil profits. It was in the blood of the father and it is in the blood of the son. They have both profited handsomely from oil profits through some might say conflicting relationships with foreign governments and policy “influentials” who seem to operate with untrammeled power and authority.

If we were to judge Mr. Bush in terms of how he has benefited the very rich and the powerful, no one would doubt that he has been very successful.

But that is simply one dimension of what is now shaping up as a plan that has little to do with a plan for America but is, in effect, a plan for the Dynasty.

If his objectives were to also fatten the larders of the military industrial complex, one would have to say that after nearly six years of investment in military technology and new esoteric forms of military hardware, if measured on those criteria alone, he would be rated very successful. You see boots on the ground require the money that has been redirected to military suppliers and technology providers.

And if you measure Bush on what he is doing now to create a North American Union, you would be inclined to say that he and his cohorts are running full speed ahead with most of America not even having an inkling of what his Union is trying to accomplish.

If you look closely, you will see his handiwork; it is in the new cross America highway systems that are being built between Mexico and the US. You can see it in the failure to do something about the illegal immigrants crossing over.

On Lou Dobbs the other night, the so-called architect of the new Union seems unable to shed any real light on the subject except to mouth homilies that seem logical unless you begin to analyze what is happening.

Informed observers are beginning to believe that the Union will eventually operate outside of government to contreol manufacturing and business. The advantage to business is that there will be no oversight; that they will be able to institute their own policies and, for the most part, avoid taxes. This would be the final straw in a government that has allowed big businesss to use Green Card labor, avoid taxes and set up overseas. It would be the beginning of the end for America which would become largely superfluous.

If such are his goals, and with the fact that this program has been promulgated in part by the Committee on Foreign Affairs, whose name by itself casts doubts as to whether America’s best interests are being served, we must admit that Bush has exceeded all of his goals.

So before we are inclined to denigrate the president’s performance, we might consider that our goals and his goals are two different things. From what we can now determine, it seems that he hnas been more than successful in the redistribution of America’s assets and the enduring wealth and power of his friends at the expense of all of the things America holds dear including democracy, liberty, equal opportunity, health care, jobs, the environment.

I am saddened that so few Americans including the media have troubled themselves enough to look into the question of power with questionable motives and the possibility that America’s goals in the long run have been sacrificed to near term, narrow interest,
self-serving agendas

les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon
The Committee for Positive Change

The Power of One

A Lesson for the Powerless

How one person operating at the local level can have a national impact!

Several years ago, we discovered that our state's pollution ranked very high, that there were toxins in the air and water that were affecting our health; moreover the burning of fossil fuels to create power and the effluents of upstream manufacturing plants were turning our "paradise" into a living hell.

To make matters worse, the County officials in our State decided policy virtually on their own without checks and balances.

Several years ago, a few of us who felt that we needed to do something to precipitate change started an organization. We have all been letter writers and we have talked to our friends. Although many of the State newspapers are conservative and follow a 'don't rock the boat' tradition, we started getting some coverage for our point of view and began generating feedback.

In the last year, we discovered that the State needs more energy capability to accommodate a spiraling need. The State invited various energy sources to make a presentation to government and in late February, four affected agencies of the State will make a decision. Prior to our involvement, it was clear that the government didn’t intend to change the status quo.

Mind you, this is no minor decision.

It will affect how we generate power for years to come. However, there has been one problem: Very few of the people in the State know anything about it and our coal lobby is extraordinarily strong providing support for various politicians in the State..

About six months ago, we had heard about a professor at the University of Delaware who apparently had gathered a great deal of information about wind energy.

And we invited him to speak at one of our environmental meetings which was originally designed to show homeowners how they could use energy-saving light bulbs to lessen the use of energy and reduce the effects of global warming.

At the tail end of the film, we introduced our guest speaker to educate us as to wind power’s attributes. It did not take long for those at that meeting to become converts to wind power.

That led to additional presentations and more meetings to figure out how we might get the message to the public. Several members of the group agreed to do some letter writing. Our president had also become a lobbyist in Dover.

We now felt that with the election less than a month and a half away, we needed to hype wind power as an energy alternative.

The danger was that we were going to miss an opportunity, an opportunity that might never come to us again should the various perpetuate the status quo and vote coal. We knew, too, that the degree of air and water pollution could only get worse. For example, our local energy source burns an entire railroad car of coal every day just to meet current demand. It is expected that this will double in the weeks and months ahead.

Sadly, there was no referendum, no attempt to educate the public as to the options available. The public needed to know that coal was one of the worst sources of pollution and no matter what the industry claims about gasification, it still would generate toxic pollutants that would be funneled into the water or the air.

In Delaware, the new gasification methods proposed would spew their effluents into the sea. And our politicians seem to think that the industry has arrived at a solution but on deeper analysis, it was clear that the industry’s view was hardly more than smoke and mirrors. Gasification would not resolve the pollution problem only exacerbate other problems. In effect, the method discharges the emissions into the ocean, thereby adding to temperature increases and acidification of the waterways. . Tests have demonstrated where carbon dioxide is directed into the oean, it contributes to changing the fundamental structure of all life beginning with the food chain. Imagine the Chesapeake without fish!

Moreover, rising temperatures produced by carbon dioxide contribute to the melting of the Greenland cap so what happens in Delaware ultimately affects the world. As of now, if we don’t convert to other sources of energy, global warming will continue and if not checked may cause an increase of water levels by up to five feet in the next four or five decades.

However, with wind energy, we have a chance to shed our image of conservatism and perpetuation of the status quo, we can produce enough energy via wind power to power the entire east coast, sell it at a profit and save money for the average consumer here at home. Wind power created electricity does not require anything to be burned or consumed; it is a natural and free resource available to the people and we are being irresponsible if we don’t use it..

Well, to test the waters, our president, Joan Deaver, arranged for fifteen minutes to speak to the local power structure at the legislative hall in Dover. A number of us traveled more than an hour to get there changing our plans to accommodate the late meeting.

When we got there, we shuttled into a tiny office and were told that our meeting was “cancelled” by the Chair although all of the members there were interested in hearing our reports and none of us had been notified in advance.

It seemed like an arbitrary decision designed to throw a monkey wrench into our plans to do nothing more than share information that our policy makers needed in order to make a well reasoned decision..

This has ignited a minor firestorm. The members of our group have all written powerful letters to the local government and to the State and the media infuriated because we were treated so cavalierly. Word is now getting out. A second meeting with the other official branch of government in Dover was attended by 75 people in government eager for more information. And we expect to have our meeting with the other house shortly.

The point is here we have a chance to make a real difference and without the intervention of our group and others, the government might have simply rubber stamped their decision to stay with coal. People have become mobilized over this and there’s a real good opportunity that a strong case for the real benefits of alternative energy will be made and the decision influenced by the interests of the people.

As I pointed out, our group was originally a phantom idea with no money and no support. Three or four of us decided that something needed to be done and we gathered strength through the Internet, word of mouth and letter writing.

Any and all of you can make a real difference and become a force multiplier to get things done; you only need the will.

I am sending this along to other grass-roots organizations that might feel powerless to let them know that one person can make a difference. Good luck with your great group, We Democrats, Ron…

Best wishes to you and the group.

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change

A Chance To Change the Future...

35 days away and counting!



In 35 days, Delaware will have an opportunity that may never present itself again.



In 35 days, four departments of government will vote on the kind of energy that we will have for the foreseeable future.



We now have an opportunity to change the status quo.



Present plans suggest that unless nothing is done to change the pre-existing mind-set, our government will place a vote for inertia: We shall vote to use more coal. And while such a decision flies in the face of good sense, the Coal industry and their lobbyists argue mightily that coal is the way to go. Clearly, profits supersedes all other priorities when anyone barely literate knows what coal does to the air and the water.

.

No matter what anyone says, even if the coal lobbyists suggest that coal is the solution, it is still the bad guy in the pollution department. Gasification or not, coal still puts residues into the air that kill twenty thousand people a year according to studies of coal’s health impact on the population.



But more than that, coal effluents change the acidity of the oceans which, in turn, changes the food chain from the bottom up. Imagine an ocean with no fish! Coal effluents raise the seas temperature levels, too, and contribute significantly to our global warming problem. It is expected that rising temperature levels alone will increase melting of the Greenland cap changing the density of the North Atlantic and perhaps changing once and for all the effect of the “conveyor belt” that keeps all continental temperatures moderate.

If the Gulf Stream ceases to operate--as it did `10,000 years ago, we can all expect another Ice Age. Remember the last Ice Age nearly ended all life on this planet as we know it.



Based on the current trends, global melting alone may raise ocean levels by five feet over the next thirty or forty years! These are not minor considerations that we can just ignore; these decisions will impact what becomes of us.



It is no secret that arguments are being made by the Coal lobby too that wind energy has all kinds of "negatives." Well, the fact is that wind energy is totally natural. To generate wind energy we don’t have to consume anything or burn anything. All of the energy is produced by the power of the wind. Best of all, with wind power there are no toxic residues that foul up the air we breath or the water we use.



Wind Energy may not be perfect but it is definitely getting a bad wrap from very biased critics who want us to increase our consumption of fossil fuels which we know poison the air and water and contribute to an increasing number of health issues.



OSHA, in recognition of how serious this is, pushed for new regulations to control emissions. They were back burnered by this government for ten years which seems to suggest that energy production should outweigh the health of the people. Well, I for one, have trouble with that thesis…



Secondly, most of the problems bandied about the lobbies are either insignificant or irrelevant. The windmills are not “bird-killers’ as some might suggest. Bird migratory patterns show this. And the windmills are not an eyesore and may be barely visible if at all from six miles out. And even on windless days at sea level, they generate energy. And that is no argument since the wind mills store energy and contribute to the grid.



However, the big pluses are that wind=power is an inexpensive, reliable source of energy.

And if we show our courage, we can use this opportunity to show that we are not locked in concrete, that Delaware can be the first to export its energy and reduce the impact significantly of coal produced electricity through out the North East.



And we can make money in the process..



When you compare what wind energy offers us to the alternatives, it is discouraging that our politicians have not shown their courage and jumped on this important bandwagon and demonstrated their support for the people. . And if anyone needs any proof of where our lame brained inertia will lead us, all we need do is check the computer projections over the next fifty years that show Delaware buried in water and virtually non-existent.



We now can do something about this outcome.



When we approached the State with our arguments in hand yesterday, even though we had an appointment scheduled, Gerald Hocker refused to give us an audience preferring to speak instead about old boats. Many of us were there armed with the information our lawmakers needed if they are going to make an intelligent decision that will impact our health. To be ignored and passed over after having been promised an opportunity to speak was not only embarrassing it was indicative that our lawmakers are so set in place in their thinking they cannot change.



It is a sad day when the public is not made privy to the information it needs to have to make what amounts to life and death decisions.



But there is still time to act. We can still demand of our politicians that they reverse the chain of inertia that stands ready to destroy the future for Delaware. We can still make a difference. But it is up to us and the clock is running out.

Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change

Living a Lie

Honesty, the best medicine

Turn on the TV and what do you hear?

Our Executive staffers and Pentagon gurus look down their nose and claim in their condescendingly superior attitude a screed that sounds something like this: “It’s up to the Iraqis to take responsibility for their own country.”

Yes, that might be true if we didn’t have a hand in obliterating the country in the first place.

Georgie seems to be better at taking things apart then putting them together and this was in evidence over the last four years. In fact, he did it so well tht we will continue to pay the price for decades to come. But let’s remember, in these callous remarks, so easily tossed about, our leaders seem to want to psychologically o distance us from the problem. In the process, , they have rationalized what has happened and the rest of us are left holding on to all that is left, lies. It is all too reminiscent of the justifications that our politicians came up with to rationalize our flight from Vietnam that left more questions than answers.

Have we learned so little in nearly forty years?

If nothing else, we as Americans should want to s hold onto the high ground whether we like the results or not rather than get caught up in the administration’s lies. . Let’s a\t least maintain our integrity and keep fact separated from fiction.

The truth is very simple:

We went into Iraq with no provocation.

We destroyed their infrastructure with “shock and awe.”

We took apart their government leaving nothing…..

We dismantled the Sunnis management and authority infrastructure replacing it with promises that were never realized..

Through our actions, we were directly responsible for the breakdown in electrical service, the interruption of water supplies, the breakdown in transportation.

We made it impossible for families to walk the streets; to send their children to school; to even shop for food safely. Today, of the 3.5 million school age children,
Only 30% are still in school and teachers confess that with all the pressures on them,
The children have learned little. What’s more, a very high number of the children are demonstrating psychological scars from their experience.


But it doesn’t end there. There is more.
We failed to protect whatever infrastructure remained.

We allowed the banks to be robbed; the buildings to be pillaged.

We didn’t protect their heritage. The museums were sacked. Artwork stolen; ancient
Sculptures were either pirated away, broken or destroyed.

In four years, the contribution to the rebuilding of Iraq has been neglible.

Hundreds of thousands of innocents have been killed or seriously wounded.

Hundreds of thousands of the Middle Class have had to flee the country.

Nearly two million families have been dislocated.

We have contributed to the exacerbation of ancient feelings between Sunni and Shia’.

And the conditions on the streets are worse than ever.

Through all of this, we have the unmitigated gall to assert with a straight face that despite what we have done, it is the responsibility of the
Iraqi people to piece together their government ostensibly absolving themselves of any responsibility for what took place.

We may want to leave this country and with good reason. And it is not hard to argue with that assessment. It is a fundamentally a no-win situation that has bled us of near one half a trillion dollars!


But let’s at least be honest enough to state the truth.

After misappropriating hard-earned tax dollars seemingly without giving it a thought, George Bush and his leadership have managed to destroy a nation of 26 million people whose major crime was being part of a government ruled by a dictatorship.

Our Armed forces have done a magnificent job; only their leadership has let them down and the country down.

In any company on earth, if you fail your responsibility you are punished.

In this government, the obverse is true. If you fail, we promote you or sing your praises.

To solve the war of words, our “spinmeisters” work overtime to hide the truth: We invaded a country for no purpose to make it the democracy it didn’t want to become; we didn’t bother to learn their language, their customs, habits or traditions. And we are astounded that we failed.

There is no getting away from the truth.

If we want to skip out, that’s one thing. If we are ready to blame the Iraqi’s for what we did, that’s something else again.

Les Aaron

The Door To China Swings Open A Little More...

It's been at least fifty years since I last set foot in China and, in that time, China has gone from the Dark Ages to a serious contender in world leadership.

At the time, no American was allowed to travel to Bejing or Shang-hai. As a consequence, we tended to hang out in those bastions of Empire such as the Penninsula, the Mandarin and other five star hotels where monumental decisions concerning the shape of Empire were already beginning to seem like ancient history. At the time, China which had ceded Hong Kong to Britain after the Opium Wars, was due to get the Crown Colony back in 37 years!.... The ex-patriot Mainland Chinese were already worried about that settlement date and making plans to re-invest elsewhere.

The Shang- Hai Canton railroad ended at Fan Ling at the border. British Ghurka’s were boarding lorries returning from maneuvers at the border just as I arrived.

It was raining lightly, I recall, and the sky was growing threatening, a metaphor perhaps for the fact that China was waking up after a long sleep and coming to the realization that it would eventually play a major role in the world. At that time, however, it was still trying to assimilate the decisions of Chairman Mao.

There has been much water in the bridge since then...

A rice paddy I had stood on at the time has now morphed into a modern city of skyscrapers with a population of a million plus.

This has happened because China has changed it has become an inexorable force towards industrialization and commercialization. With it, however, has come a multitude of problems that seem to finally have surfaced reaching the attention of party operatives after many years of being ignored or swept under the tables.

It all began when China's leaders realized that they had no choice: They had to transform themselves into an industrial powerhouse in order to survive and once that happened, there was no stopping them.

Last night, two more installments of China From the Inside played on PBS. This program has earned plaudits for being the frankest, most objective take on the new China and if you've missed it, I would suggest that you make the time available to see the program that touches on the people, the environment, the rule of law n China. Why? Because China can only play a bigger part of our future lives.

The thing that impressed me most was that this was not a tightly choreographed program featuring content pre-screened by the government; instead it visited all of the areas of China, including Tibet in the West and the areas to the north of Bejing and told it like it was without gilding the lilly.
.
It is an objective view of their problems and the changes taking place that in essence are changing everything. Farmers who have lived in backwards parts of China are being moved to farm lands that have become the beneficiary of new irrigation policies that will provide a living for the farmers. Unfortunately, the downside of this new expansionist policy is that the people have very little say as to what happens.

Although to us, it may appear that China is a homogeneous country where everyone works and follows the government's line is simply not true. This program showed the individuality of the native Chinese that varies from province to province, from community to community.

For example, although there are very few environmental lawyers practicing in China today, they are practicing and they are winning cases. One lawyer depicted had won eighty pollution cases in recent years, something unheard of only a few years ago where pollution was considered part of the expansion and the growing commitment to industry . This is not to say it is very hard to get your environmental claim recognized and pursued in a court of law. Those not receiving satisfaction in the legal system may petition the government in Bejing; however, while a legal counsel admits on air that eighty percent of those petitions are legitimate; only a fraction of one percent ever are approved.

So, there is much work to do.

The program also showed how the law applies and enforced. For the most part, those imprisoned may be imprisoned without a court of the people or with convincing evidence; it is enough that the local judge feels that they are guilty. They may then receive up to a four year sentence to which there is no appeal involving forced labor at sprawling government re-education centers across China....

The Chinese do not think that taking over Tibet was an act of war but just acquiring property that legitimately belonged to China.
Today, the Dali Lama is daily denigrated as a traitor and the people seem to have fallen into place brainwashed by the non-stop "re-education."

But for the first time in my recollection all of the fears that we who lived in Hong Kong, China is beginning to open up, to show its real self to a world that knows very little about a country that is the fastest growing economic power in the world and is in a contradictory way, emerging from the Dark Ages...

Truly, we should learn as much about China as we possibly can.

A good reason is that China has set its goals on leading in industrial growth. There is evidence, now, that they have targeted the automotive industry and while they only have showed a few cars, the fact remains that within ten years they will be competitive with the industry leaders.

They are graduating many more scientists and engineers than America turns out and many of our own leading companies are building research centers or manufacturing enterprises in China. Intel, the leader in microchips is building a plant in China that called for an investment of over one billion dollars to meet future demand. Microsoft has built a headquarters for research and development.
But they are only the tip of the iceberg of a burgeoning technology center for the world.

What this will do to America's leadership is a moot question that has not been answered but it is clear that a country with 121 cities with over a million population--many of them built in the last twenty years---and a population of 1.25 billion people is not a force that we can afford to ignore...

Presently, America's foreign debt of over sixty billion dollars a month; most of this goes to China who holds a trillion dollars of our debt. Whether it's because of China's potential or the problems it faces in dealing with its growing environmental challenges, it is clear that we shall have to work together in the future if there is any hope for tomorrow.

As of now, the conditions for building a relationship on trust are not in place. The Bush regime has failed in the eyes of most of the world to inspire confidence and to demonstrate a vision of peace that we can all embrace. Therefore, the situation in China, and what it brings bears close scrutiny. And we may have to look elsewhere to gain a better understanding of the biggest competitive threat to America in the whole world.

Les Aaron

The Dance Begins...

It’s nothing new!

Despite all of the talk to the contrary, people seem to discuss elections earlier and earlier.
It’s the equivalent of the cruise wear that shows up almost immediately after the new year.
Why is that?
Why do we insist on compressing the calendar?
Because it’s something to do.
With the big games out of the way, something has to occupy our time.
And at this particular time, we are all collectively tired of all of the unjustified spin that this government has produced and a lack of really good news!
Sure, the economy is up but how much is that going to do for the little guy on the production line.
Stock prices go up because companies either sell more or do a good job of cutting costs, hiking earnings and dividends.
But there are too few who are benefiting from such things these days.
In fact, most of us who I speak to are scared out of their proverbial draws.
Costs are going up and income has remained static…
Good jobs are simply going aroud looking for you….and the big grand-daddy of all trend-makers, the housing market looks like it got hit with a sledge.
The truth is that most of us are having a hard time keeping up.
The banks are upping their demands and their interest rates and credit from the plastic
Purveyors is harder and harder to come by.
So, that leaves most of us in an increasingly fragile position. No wonder people are calling for change.
So this year, in particular, the dialogue starts early: Who is our white knight who is going to deliver us from evil and debt? That is the big question.
And, restless as we are, we are beginning to look for answers.

Right now, the cast of players keeps growing. We’ve got Villisek, Kucinich, and a couple of others just ready to take off even if they may not be household words as yet.
The best known of the announced being Edwards who has seemed to have cared out a nice little niche focusing on poverty which could turn out to be the deciding issue if Iraq’s problems ever get resolved or we get our boys and girls back, whichever comes sooner.

For the time being the rest seem to be doing their dance around the light weaving closer and closer to the admission pass: An announcement of intent. Right now, Barak seems ready to make an announcement any day now and Hillary keeps gathering information. At what point do you say, I have enough to form a position? Joe Biden said that he will run and while Barak has no experience, Biden may have already had too much exposure.

It may be, too, that the people have had it and are looking for a Deux Ex Machina to toss the past and move into the future with an untarnished hero like Barak but it’s too early to say.

Howard Dean must be looking at al of this and saying there but for the grace of God. Amazing how a speaker designed to eliminate peripheral static can do in a leading contender.

In any event, the dance has begun.

And when the music stops, everyone will be scurrying for chairs.

We’ve still two years before the election. It is a wonder if there will be many left at the end of the probes, the articles, the mistakes that are bound to loom up because they are commonplace in every campaign.

In the meantime, we chomp on our gummy bears, pick a good seat and wait it all out….

The democratic process seems more at times, for us the viewers, than for the candidates
Who sometimes find that two years of campaigning can be a humbling experience.

Les Aaron

The Man Who Loved "Short Cuts!"

It's interesting to see how fast people backtrack when they don't want to be associated with something...

Take the case of Georgie boy, many of his most ardent backers are now looking for any exit, any way to dissassociate themselves with the former boy wonder, a genius in his own mind...

Dad knew best. Junior was the dummy of the family, no question.

But that's what happens when you compensate for your guilt for not being a parent, by easing their way to such an extent that they later on cannot deal with challenges of any kind.

Through his youth, he also morphed into the stereotypical spoiled brat who thought he should win one way or the other on every issue that came up. Bush was the guy who always had to win and to win, he didn't mind tossing out the rules if they got in his way. He was the guy who said if you don’t do it my way, I’m taking home the bat and the ball. He wasn’t even subtle about it. Struggling or sweating the small stuff wasn’t simply in his vocabulary. There was always a better way….He wasn't going to study for that grade, he’d find somebody to bail him out.
He wasn’t going to fight that war. He'd pull some strings to get out of it as we all know he did.
What's the best way to become successful without working for it. Oil. It's in the ground; all you have to do is find it. And have a lot of friends of your dad around willing to start you off. And if it doesn't work out, you check with your friend at Enron and he'll tell you how to get out of it with money in the bank. It pays to have influential friends. That's how it's been all of his life.

It worked that way with the Saudis, too. They came along at just the right time to invest in the young man whose dad was the president of the US, former UN ambassador, head of the CIA.

With money, they could buy influence with Junior, get the planes and influence they needed, and lay the groundwork for the future.

Nobody ever accused the Saudis of not using everything to get their way. So, in some respects, they were birds of a kind, people who got rich not because of the sweat of their brows but because there was black gold in the ground. That relationship has stood up well right through the business arrangements they had, including the Carlyle Group.

And don't think our rush in to save Oman and the other cities states in the Persian Gulf was because we hated Saddam so, hell no, it was to bail out the Saudis....

Bush loyalties seem directly proportional to the amount of money involved....and the Bush's have never lost sight of the power of the almighty buck. The only problem is that think that they can use the United States and its resources to do their personal heavy-lifting as long as they kept the necessary low profile.

But, eventually, somebody sits up and takes notice. And someone says, “hey, isn’t that our money and our young people they’re using to do their dirty work.”

There are still those out there who don’t get it.

They still blame Saddam for being the enemy in 9/11.

They still believe what they are toldl to believe and, sadly, there are so many of them, it makes you want to flee here and start your own country. But that isn’t the answer and we all understand that.

To them, we must stand up. We must get people to start thinking again. We must return to fundamental democratic values and ideals and that doesn’t mean tossing your religion and values down my throat. It means the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the rule of law….not laws made up in a vacuum by self-perceive loyalty who feel no obligation to the public good.

One good thing has come out of this, however, the royal dynasty of the Bush's may be over. Nobody wants another Bush even close to any office where they could decide policy.

And all of the big wigs in the Party haven't stopped running...

Les Aaron

No Walk in the Park!...

In a message dated 1/15/2007 11:47:50 AM Eastern Standard Time, Hubmaster writes:
Woops! It's starting. The red lights are flashing....
The words seem are pouring out! The reason we are losing is scapegoat numero uno: The Iranians...It is a constant round of scapegoating: We were losing in Afghanistan because of Iraq! We are losing in Iraq because of Iran. Who wants to get on this daisy chain of insanity...
What is frightening is that we don't learn from any of these experiences...
We keep repeating the same old mistakes...The only thing that gives us a credible performance is our strong, committed army and our powerful weaponry.
Aside from that, we would have been swallowed alive.

When you see the constant unravelling...when you see the same lame explanations going out....when you see the finger pointing, you know we are embarked upon a dangerous course.

The PR gurus are already setting the stage.

We were wrong. It was not the Tailiban. It was not Al Qaeda. It was not Saddam. It was not the Shia' or the Sunni, it was the Iranians, the Persians of old who we think we are going to fly over and dominate. I am worried. There are three air craft carriers in the vicinity.
They are loaded topside with our latest planes, the F16s, F18's, F19's and our cruisers are loaded with attack missiles....
But before we go off thinking that we are invincible, keep in mind that
There are three times as many Persians as there are Iraqis....
And we couldn't beat them. What makes us so sure that we can beat the Persians into the ground? The Romans tried this and found that it was no walk in the park. In fact, the Persians beat at least three Roman Emperors...
and humbled the rest... Let me tell you for a moment in case you forgot who the Iranians are descended from: The Parthenons, a fusion of both the ancient Greeks and the ancient Persians, the one population that beat the strongest Empire on Earth, the Romans. Skilled warriors, good to their neighbors, humanistic cultivating individuality and scientifically advanced. We would do well not to put down our adversaries without studying them very carefully...

it is clear we have a policy that's out of control.Senator Biden warned Bush not to get ambitious; that he does not have authority to widen the war.The House will certainly limit funding but War today is something that rage in a single day and then there is no turning back.

Bush doesn't listen.He is impelled by ego, brashness and arrogance.
He is determined to get his way no matter what the cost.
Don't think he sits up nights crying about all of the dead and injured he has caused.
Don't think he cares about anything but getting his way...

The one sign of hope: people are beginning to understand; the word is penetrating that thick piece of grissle that covers the brain... And he has become more and more isolated from his staff, from his generals, from his support in Congress and finally the people.

And if nothing else, here's the reminder de jour: Not to put to fine an edge on it, Russia and the US still have many thousands of nuclear weapons each, and each has the power to wipe out every major city many times over with just a phone call....

This man is dangerous. He doesn't know history so he can't learn from it. We should hide the red phone and put him into a nice warm jacket with straps so he doesn't call anyone...
Either that or we'd better find a better place than Earth to hide...

Les

It's Impossible!

What we now know:

It's possible to steal this country...
without a single voice raised in opposition...

It's possible to rig the voting machines...
to change outcomes...


It's possible to transform a democracy into an autocracy for the very rich

It's possible to destroy the Labor Unions and the Middle Class in one fell swope

It's possible to have leaders that don't have the good of the public in mind...

It's possible to have leaders who are dysfunctional, full of hate and bravado so as to distort American values

It's possible to go very far on bullying and aggression

It's possible to eliminate the vital documents that have defined us in less than four years...

It's possible to turn the world's leading economy into a banana republic in four short years...

It's possible for business to write all the laws and circumvent Congress

It's possible to grab power from the other two branches without an outcry

It's possible to intimidate the media through the power of the FCC and the IRS

It's possible to destroy vital checks and balances in the blink of an eye

It's possibe to render the opposition MUTE in the blink of an eye...

It's imposssible to find one brave man to stand up to tell the truth

And it's also possible that if he did, that no one would listen to him

It's possible to turn Americans against Americans...

It's possible to defy good sense and stay in office

It's possible to remove American's freedoms one by one until the Terrorists have won...

It's possible to want office more than you want to govern...

It's possible to put people in jobs that are diametrically opposed to their abilities, interests and talents as little as they may be..

It's possible to run a government without listening to anyone of good sense~

It's possible to ignore the forces of Nature until they swallow up this country....

It's possble to raise money from all kinds of sources who don't care what happens to a livible America...

It's possible to alienate every people on the planet in less than four years!

It's possible to make our tiny little blue orb unlivable

But it's not possible to remove them from office without a greater effort than anyone is willing to make.

Onesuspects that the Creator is readying Plan B...

Les Aaron

Has Our Illustrious Leader Lost It?

If you've listened to what the president wants and his rationale for adding twenty thousand more troops--what many believe is a case of too little, too late-- a thinking person would have to shake his head.

The question de jour: "What the Hell have we allowed ourselves to get into?"
How can this Executive base a policy on the flimsiest of agreements with a man who has consistently frustrated our efforts before.

The only thing that comes out of this speech is that we do not seem to be able to see the terrain objectively. We do not understand people. We do not understand the nature of the participants in this Civil War. We do not understand the regional forces in play here. And we tend to believe what we want to believe regardless of the facts.

Bush is right. Only it took him four years to own up to the blame and therefore his accepting blame is a little gratuitous and insincere.

And he is right that he has rejected the advice of his best advisors and the Iraq study group to prove that he is mano-a-mano. But this is a little bigger than ego games and petulance; it is about the future of the Middle East and the lives of our best and brightest. Are we simply throwing away the lives of our young so that he can say that he was right!--

But more critically, if this is how our Chief Executive's mind works, better start investing in space ships in a hurry.

What we hear coming out of our government is very scary.

It is as if magic and ego can conspire to make something out of nothing; to make a purse out of a sow's ear.

What we are hearing is not only close to impossible based on the facts, it is sleight of hand..

We have a plan built on the most flimsy of rationales.

We are basing the entire plan--the survival of this government--on a government that has ignored everything we said-- a government that has a direct interest in supporting one half of the participants in the Civil War.
This is a man in bed with Moktar, one half of the country's problem!
Hello! Is anybody listening out there?

At this point, wiser minds should prevail.

We based going into this war on the advice and guidance of a known liar and thief who we know had stolen millions of dollars from the Jordanian bank; yet we supported him and his cronies with taxpayer dollars to the tune of over 300, 000 dollars a month.

Now, we are basing our closing policy, our last shot, on speculation that we can influence a man who doesn't even want us there and who will not support us!

It is time for the courageous to speak up.
We cannot afford to have a government that thinks in such a careless and slipshod way deciding policy for the next two years!

We cannot afford to dig ourselves any bigger hole than we are already in.

It's time to demand that our representatives do the job they were elected to do.
It is time for the media to revert back to honesty in their coverage.

For four years we have sat by and idly let this group of men who have demonstrated an inability for serious thought to call the shots on our lives.

This cannot stand...

It is time for a new generation of Minutemen to come forward and tell the world that we refuse to rubber stamp their macho behavior. We are way behind playing cowboy here.

Les Aaron

Are We Deliberately Pushing Iran Into War

It has been my experience that very few things happen by chance.
That’s why I wonder why many of the cable stations have been running a program describing how Israel conducted its successful raid on Iraq’s nuclear capability.

This is pretty heady stuff and, to the best of my knowledge, was kept under wraps for twenty years…

Now, releasing this information at a time when Iran, a major threat to Israel whose leader threatens to eliminate Israel, is not only a case of deja-vu, it is almost as if the US government were raising the threat level against the Iranians.

Now, rumor has it that Israel may be considering a strategy of using nuclear weaponry against Iran.

Now, this is not the kind of information that just floats around in the ether; surprising as it seems, it has an author and it has reached key writers for American journals. This means that the information is a plant!...

Obviously, there is intent in releasing this kind of information…and one has to assume that it came from the US government.

In addition, we learn that America has moved another battle group including another carrier to the area and we have stepped up our Marine contingent in preparation for an increase in hostilities.

Of course, this is all worrisome to serious minds who have seen America’s willingness to move a war footing without sincere diplomacy being tried.

We must make our leadership know that we do not support an escalation of the War that can lead to destabilization of the entire Middle East. If we are threatened, we must make clear to our leadership that not talking to our enemies is a policy that is counter-productive and operates against our best interests.

Les Aaron

Cross Purposes

Short term prescription for disaster…


What is very interesting is that America with all of its emphasis on making big profits is doing everything it can to maximize profits over the short term only to burn out over the longer term..

The reason: Most big companies are not the source of their own innovation; they depend on others to move them to the next plateau. Innovation is always people inspired and it always comes from outside.

Let me explain via analogy: New York in the 60’s was the home of over two hundred Fortune 500 companies until a few of them decided that perhaps they could move to their own beautiful campus in a lush surburban landscape (usually within 10 minutes of the Chairman’s home).

It sounded great! The campuses were beautiful.

So, why didn’t it work?

First off, these companies lost their advantage: They were cut off from the kind of information that flashed around Manhattan; they lost their top level contacts and sub-contractors who didn’t want to travel an hour away from their home offices so they sent their underlings. In the end, many of these companies realized the error of their ways. They had failed to take into account what they might lose in terms of high level human contacts who had been responsible for helping to keep their companies moving forward and on top of the latest trends and technology.

A similar challenge faces these giant super companies who think that they are invulnerable from challenge and that they can keep their momentum going indefinitely.

But here’s the reality: Despite the fact that America is known for all its big businesses with mighty tentacles all over the world...the fact that virtually all innovation does not come from the big those big monolithic companies but those associated with the industry either at the University level or as a sub-contractor, a supplier, or others who understand or work in the same or similar technologies or who have a peripheral interest in making the technology better.

Change oftentimes evolves out of a witch’s brew of ingenuity and people who share a similar chemistry and interest. Take it away and the chances are that that company may continue on its merry way making things smaller, lighter and cheaper but they have whether willingly or otherwise severed the connections that precipitate real change that keeps an industry alive and burgeoning. In the end, change is legitimately the product of smart people exchanging ideas with smart people producing those synaptic connections that result in ideation that produces change and allows a company to move to the next plateau..

When a company becomes too big, it becomes too committed to maintaining the status quo and loses those maverick qualities that engender and precipitate change. The cultures evolve in different ways encouraging homogeneity over innovation and thinking outside the box.

For the most part, the so-called “big company” recognizes that to move forward it needs employees who are grounded in the company’s philosophy and culture; it does not know how to integrate Young Turks!...

Check it out you will see that all major innovations of the kind that explode the technology onto another level come from outside the industry per se. For example,the hybrid was not developed at GM; the pc was not the brainchild of the futurists at IBM.

Why is that?

Aside from being too close to their own businesses, for the most part, giant companies tend to become obsessed with their own ingenuity, brillance and hence become solipsistic unwilling to admit that perhaps somebody else can have a better idea.

At GM, the unwritten rule was “no surprises.” Each person on the Board saw all new ideas three times it was rumored. First, the idea had to be submitted; than a presentation was left with the members of the Board and, eventually, the members were again subjected to the idea which after three exposures, found most of them asleep.

GM was notorious for not listening to anyone who came to them with new ideas; they were so inbred, they couldn't see technology even if it was plunked down in front of their faces. They all went to the same Detroit design schools and all they knew was the automotive industry from the Detroit perspective.

Therefore, “no surprises,” translated into little innovation.

On the other hand, the Japanese, who had been laughed at for their little tin cars, came here with little to lose and listened to consumer. That was the difference.

Consider IBM.

When I was in the computer field, IBM was God, therefore, they thought ideas like pc's and graphical interfaces as soft minded and unworthy of the profundity of the 1401...

They also didn’t think they needed to take control of the Operating System or control the manufacture of the integrated chips that they depended upon.

About that time, came along a young man with no product. IBM went to him and said that they were interested in buying an Operating System.

Bill Gates was smart enough to say, “yes,” find a San Francisco manufacturer of an existing system and negotiate a contract to sell to IBM something it didn’t make and barely owned.

The rest was history.

About the same time, IBM found a small company that was interested in building their chip. This company turned out to be Intel.

At the time, IBM did not realize that not only had it failed to see the potential of the pc, it had given away technology that would in the short term prove to be huge profit centers that would each individually dwarf IBM, itself.

But it doesn’t end there.

It took Xerox Palo Alto, the research arm of the giant Xerox Company to develop the graphical interface which was ignored by “the suits” in Rochester; the founder of Apple, Steve Jobs, however, saw the possibilities and he along with Bill Gates rushed into production.

Today, Steve Jobs no longer talks about Apple Computer but thinks in terms of a radically new technology that is changing everything, the I-Pod, which has now been integrated with the cell phone, palm pilot, Internet. Certainly, Mr. Jobs paid attention when the gurus gave the class on “convergence.”

IBM still thought that the PC was a toy!

So much for the prescience of the Big Company.

I don’t mean to single out IBM, Xerox, or GM for their inability to see the future; it’s built-in to all of the giant companies because in the process of becoming big, they develop cultures specific to what they consider their priorities and lose their innovativeness for the most part unless they have amazingly astute managements. Andy Grove Steve Jobs and Bill Gates for example worried about becoming obsolete almost from Day One…but were all innovators and understood that they could become obsolete in the blink of an eye…

The fact of the matter is that the Silicon Revolution never would have happened without the connections between the University, the people, the interface and the willingness to try something new... and government money. This created the kind of alchemy that resulted in ground-breaking progress that up until that time was unimagined thanks to the catalyst, government money.

Will business and industry orchestrate similar breakthroughs today? Unlikely, if they continue to operate with the present mind-set.

Here’s why:

We have broken up the combinations of people so that they can’t interface as before in casual ways exchanging ideas and building better mousetraps. Now, they are scattered through-out the manufacturing process in order to realize the short term goals of maximum profits over the short term.

There is very little opportunity, today, for innovators to get together, rub off each other, exchange ideas and make magic.

We now separate everything for profitability.

We have manufacturing managements in New York and the product made in China. In becoming a world culture, we have separated those who have the most to gain from each other and we have destroyed the components of true innovation.

We have effectively ended the Silicon Valley miracle that encouraged all of those California companies who exchanged ideas, made mistakes, kept trying and encouraged each other to achieve success…

This author predicts that that period in history is over and that eventually we will face a long period of growing mediocrity and as a result, sluggish growth in technology until someone gets the message and we start over again, if we can.

But such changes are not automatic; someone must see the forest for the trees; someone must realize that to kick start a old and tired industry, you need to get back to those fundamentals that built the company in the first place. Until then, look to the smaller companies, the companies with less to lose and most to gain for all future innovation and don’t be surprised if they continue to be home grown in America.

It seems so ironic because we were the country more committed to pushing the envelope than cutting costs. We were technology driven; not fixated on cutting labor costs to boost profits. But it is hard to argue against sky-rocketing profits that come from reducing the cost of manufacturing and overhead.

Les Aaron
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"The Man Who Worked Backwards..."

This government would like to be thought of for its position on tax-cuts and protection; more than likely, it will be remembered for its intransigence, its inability to govern and Katrina…



When you have so few legs to stand on, it would be a good idea to do your best on those issues that you suspect will define you.



Specifically, the issues have boiled down to Iraq which will define this presidency one way or the other.



In all fairness, we began with a loaded plate. Cheney did not believe George Tenant and Cheney was a warrior who hadn’t gotten it all out of his system during the Cold War. And the Neo-Cons thought that 9/11 could become the vehicle for changing the world if only they could switch the blame from bin Laden to Saddam.



Against this backdrop, there was the president who notoriously chaffed against the idea of understanding the background of not only this but any decision. He hated to read; hated to study; and, therefore, depended almost totally on his intuition which in most cases had previously proved wrong.



All of the qualities that were missing in our president wound up being reflected in our failed policies. From his lack of knowledge of the terrain to the tough-it-out mindset that suggested that nothing or nobody would ever change his mind. The trouble was that this mind-set was established before the information started filtering back and that which was incompatible with the desired result was simply rejected. And, from what an objective lens can gather, everything else was fudged or lied about, with little concern for honesty or the truth, and in the process destroying more than a few reputations.. This is the conclusion reached by anyone who has listened to the testimony of former analysts and CIA operatives who were party to the process, the Antiterrorist Czar, former appointees who resigned from this government and even Woodward’s reporting.



You can’t make decisions ahead of learning the facts based upon pure will and no insights, information or intel. You will come out just wrong; and that’s just what happened. But the president, ever mindful that his reputation hung in the balance, shot from the hip once again and blamed the analysts, the generals, whomever was a convenient whipping boy at the time and blamed everyone else for being anti-patriotic.

This was chutzpah operating on overdrive.



All of the information used in the formation of the prearranged decision then was tainted and should have been tossed; but, instead, it wound up in the State of the Union, the precursor to the loss of three thousand of our best and brightest.



Government by intuition and bias is not what the Founding Fathers had in mind.



You don’t start out with the decision and they seek to justify it; not in a Democracy that follows the rules of law; not in the 21st century when your enemies are as well armed as you are…



What we were seeing was our Fuhrer rushing through Poland because there was no resistance; and Congress looking more and more like Western Europe, compliant and eager to please.



The rest was history: We were mired in a War we had no business being in the first place and no plan for a way out, a war that still exists and in trying to reason it out, we seem to forget that everything that led up to it was obfuscation, misdirection, smoke and mirror and need I say it, lies.



Les Aaron

THE COMMITTEE FOR POSITIVE CHANGE

The Build-Up To War!

I’ve been told by peer and client alike that I have an uncommon ability to see what’s coming up. I think it is probably do more to an intuitiveness and common sense.
That’s why I am particularly disturbed by this preoccupation with building up the force level in Baghdad as Bush is likely to announce early next week.

Yesterday, on CNBC, a reporter said that the change in missions if this comes to pass, will result in many more our young people dead.

In my own mind, I could not help but wonder, new mission or not, how long Americans will sit still for that.

But there is also a persistent picture that keeps coming back to me and it seems to be shaping up as my own view of the future of a confused Baghdad.

And by the way, a confused situation on the ground to me has always been reflective of a government mired in confusion…. It’s hard not to think of New Orleans for starters.

Anyway, I don’t see a dimunition in violence. In fact, with more troops, there will likely be more clashes and more death—not squirreling off to the “green zone” under the new mission parameters.

Eventually, another Bremer type will point to the fact that this wouldn’t be happening if it weren’t the support the Shiites are getting from Teheran.
The argument will refer to the new bombs or the new technology that is slipping across the border.

This is bound to come up!

Of course, the Iranians will not keep quiet should this occur and the dialogue will heat up.

And that is the opening GWB is looking for to save the party.

After all, what else does he know how to do except bluster and bully…

The worrisome part is that we can go virtually instantaneously onto a war footing with Iran. Our ships are there. They are loaded with missiles. Our planes are on the aircraft carriers and there will be three on site within the next month…And we have submarines loaded with missiles standing by…

Now, all the bully has to do is up the ante because he knows that the people will stick with their Party when push comes to shove and we are neck deep in the muck.
If all else fails, we can always spin the fact that the Iranians are pushing our buttons and “killing American boys and girls”…

Any way you slice it, it would not take much for us to ratchet up the tensions bringing us one step closer to war.

To this paranoid government, fisticuffs are better than dialogue any time; not to mention the behind the scenes shove we will likely get from the military industrial complex that has a very big stake in outcomes.

These boys have been very busy building every kind of weapon of destruction from guns that fire a million rounds a minute to giant bombs that can wipe out anything within 150 yards with precision targeting. 150 yards is like nine city blocks. You figure it out!

In any event, our only hope is Congress and saner minds who can hopefully work to diffuse the rush to bomb the Iranians off the globe.

If such thinking were to go unchallenged, it would be the worst miscalculation of our time.

I hope I am wrong but understanding the players and their modus operandi and the need for something to keep the party together and maintain loyalties, it is hard for me to see another scenario that comes close.

Les Aaron
Hubmaster

The “Presto-Chango” Approach Winning…

People, ask yourself, have we been led down the primrose path?

Have we been hypnotized into believing something that has not one iota of truth behind it.

Has repetition of what is untrue deafened us to the facts?

Why are we, therefore, committing more troops to bringing peace and democracy to Iraq?

What does Iraq have to do with 9/11?

Sorry to bust your illusions; it has nothing to do with 9/11.

So why are we talking about committing more troops there?

Good question? Could it have something to do with illusion and smoke and mirrors and a little personal payback?

We are told that unless we add troops to the Iraqi equation, we are likely to see the current condition in Iraq continue to dissemble into chaos.

First of all, no one has been able to make a case for why adding troops at this stage of the game without a well thought plan is going to do much of anything. If they thought so, why didn't they add troops before? Okay, now here's my point: . I feel sorry for what we did to the Iraqis but what does that have to do with getting bin Laden?. Remember him.

I don’t mean to be callous here but everything we have touched in Iraq has gone down the tubes. Therefore, by adding more manpower to the equation, how does that address the problem?. The problem is not the current condition, it is one that we have lost our way and two that this government is incapable of putting together a credible plan and is merely groping in the dark and leading the entire country along in this misguided exercise that leads nowhee..

What we need to do is get real. . Here are the facts one last time: It was not the Iraqis who invaded America, it was members of Al Qaeda; and it seems we have continually neglected the pursuit of both they and their patrons, the Tailiban, turning much of our job over to surrogates as we embarked on a totally different venture which as I recall was to bring democracy to Iraq after all of our specious charges were revealed for what they were.

It seems from what we read and hear, America has come down with a form of national amnesia and seems incapable of maintaining one coherent thought: The reason we went to war was to clean up Al Qaeda and while we have been spinning our wheels, Al Qaeda has only gotten stronger and more entrenched.

What is going on?

For two years, Vice President Cheney aided and abetted the confusion by insisting that the leading operatives of Al Qaeda were in cahoots with the Iraqi leadership. Today, many in the armed forces and elsewhere are suffering under this misinformation believing that the Iraqis were responsible for 9/11.

Don’t we have an obligation to pursue the original culprits with all of our energies and not be distracted or diffused with our engagement with another country that did not make war on America?

How can Americans show the same ardor for pursuing a state that has never been linked to the American aggression with one that clearly has been responsible for the death of thousands in our premier city?.

We need to wake up and shake the dust out of our heads and get back to the original misson of finding bin Laden and putting Al Qaeda out of business at this juncture while we still can. It is he and his growing minions who pose the biggest threat to America lest we forget it. And, it seems to me, that before we run off getting involved in clashes between Sunni and Shiite that we attend to the business at hand which is the business of putting bin Laden and his cohorts out of business—

Les Aaron

My New Year's Resolutions!....Unexpurgated Edition

I've compiled a new set of resolutions as I do every year

One of my first resolutions is always to work to improve my memory which would help me locate my resolutions immediately after I have forgotten where I placed them...

Secondly, I pledge to do my best to get out of bed at a reasonable hour....preferably before noon.

I also promise to help the distillers of the world by doing my part...

I pledge to begin the "cocktail hour" fifteen minutes earlier every year as my contribution to world peace...

i also promise to treat my republican family members with more respect than they're entitled to as part of my increasing generosity of spirit....

I promise to cut back on those things that give me indigestion like listening to Bush before dinner...

I promise not to kick in any more TV's before the election

I promise not to grind my teeth when somebody says something stupid about politics at a cocktail party...

I promise to buy new glasses so that I can watch my diet better....

I promise to stay in Weight Watchers beyond week one...

i promise to find a new word to call my politicians instead of "idiot."

I promise not to say "jerk " after I see one more Abs of Steel commercial...

I promise to watch something other than the Military
Channel, Discovery-Time, the History channel and PBS if only for ten minutes....

I promise to be more accepting of all the dumb asses on the Internet...

I promise that when my class tells me that what happens to society has nothing to do with them, I will not attempt to strangle them as a group...

To ease the burden of alcoholism, I will try to drink more light beer...

I will not supersize anything...

For improved health, I will give up the source of dangerous illness this year: Green leafy vegetables...

This year, I will not retort to my wife that I should go out and get a hearing aid after blasting the TV, that I don't have a problem with my hearing but she mumbles indistinctly.

Next year, I promise not to hide when the tree is to be put up...and the lights assembled...

To help the economy, I have volunteered to donate my job...

The next time we go on a long drive, I promise not to try to educate my wife on science, evolution, biology, Darwinism, GAIA principles, the formation of the Universe, historical imperatives, the causes of the great Extinctions, global warming and higher mathematics including string theory and the theory of M, the theory of everything....

Happy New Year One and All!

How New Can A New Year Be?

Does A New Year Infer New Thinking?

We toast each other! We receive phone calls from people we seldom hear from. We visit neighbors and share a memory or two. There is no way to escape the fact that we have entered a time of change, we have begun what the calendar dictates is "a new year!" ....Still, the New Year becomes for us what we hope is an opportunity to start afresh; yet our insides warn us that perhaps we expect too much from a blip on a calendar considering that all of the baggage from last year has not simply evanesced in a whisp of smoke. Perhaps, more hopefully, we wish that we could start with a blank slate but we know it can't be that way....

Oh, it sounds so inviting: Imagine being able to really wipe away all of our mistakes as if they were inscribed in chalk on some metaphysical black board, start off fresh…but the truth is far different. We have inherited a cast of characters and a range of plots that almost by osmosis we find ourselves absorbed in whether we want to be or not.


Nevertheless, there are positive signs that perhaps, yes, we shall be able to change things…

After all, we have a democratic congress in 2007, something we didn’t have in ’06.
Nancy Pelosi says that she is going to begin almost immediately in making peace with Congress and introducing change. We are already seeing a raft of candidates ready to immerse themselves into the presidential race. Perhaps rationality will prevail after all.
And if that isn’t a happy thought, what is…

Well, even the most curmudgeonly of us might have to agree it’s a lot better way to start than viewing a future of more of the same. More of the same blindness to what is going on in the world; more of the same indifference to the idea of bold new strategies to change America for the better.

Yet, we are not home free and clear.

There are policies in place that move forward through Republican support and their own inertia whether deemed right or wrong. The military industrial complex has a cause and it has been growing enough to swallow most of America’s available budgets…

And some of our best visionaries see a host of problems that will not go away any time soon.

Will anyone investigate our invasion of Iraq much less the abuses that have characterized the last four years?

Hardly. After all, do we want to antagonize the architects of these failed plans.

Will anyone agree that global warming demands an immediate and massive overhaul of current policies ranging from our consumption of fossil fuels to our policies regarding the preservation of marshlands and species?.

Perhaps, but it is doubtful considering all of those with special interests who campaigned against those tree huggers, “pinkos,” liberal types who think more of trees than human beings in one of the most effective campaigns to blame the messengers than those guilty souls who care not a whit for the future of mankind.

Will anything really be done about all of these policies that see jobs moved to Third World Nations because the cost of labor is cheaper assuring the top executives that they will continue to accumulate the bulk of the nation’s wealth not to mention big perks while the rest of the middle class must make do with a wage that does not even guarantee survival.

Will we do anything about China’s stranglehold on our economy where China holds all the cards and condemned us to be the leading retail nation with staggering debt.

Doubtful on that score, too, unless China actually threatens the peace of South Asia or our leaders self-interest; notice the public interest enters very rarely into these considerations.

What will be done to change the course of the war resulting in our redirecting our energies to the people actually responsible for 9/11 not just a convenient stand=in dupe who had nothing to do with the terrorist attacks? Who has been peremptorily hanged as if that would keep him from divulging what he knows about the cast of characters who gave him the WMD in the first place. Ah, you didn’t suspect did you?

Not much as our policy seems to drift from the inane to the imbecilic… When you are doing badly because you don’t have a winning policy, the solution—according to our great minds—is to add more bodies into the equation…. Give us all a break!


And I’ve only scratched the surface.

We haven’t discussed the loss of liberties, our forsaken “privacies” as guaranteed by the Constitution, the idea of torture as an American strategy even though it has been outlawed by the Geneva Convention, our failed support for initiatives to solidify our relationships in the mid-east with Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Jordan and Syria. Our failure to offer a good education to every living American, or our willingness to do what is necessary to restore a decent home life to the inhabitants of New Orleans; or the multi-tiered challenges of not resolving the issue of illegal aliens in the US.; or the ongoing corruption and special interests that seem to invade every sector of government life…

If we can’t find answers to these questions that are consistent with the American way of life and our thinking, than whether it is 2007 or 2006, it will not make much difference.

As we move into the new year, we can only hope that democrats will remember why they were voted into office: The Country is anxious for positive change after six years of medieval thinking and a government that seems to have more in common with Louis the XIV than a contemporary Western civilization.

And we can only express our hope that rational minds will prevail and that all of our representatives will remember why they are in office and find their collective consciences.

Les Aaron