Meter Shock

I drove by our gas station in the last couple of weeks and saw the price rise nearly thirty cents per gallon….so I figured although I had a half tank, I’d better top it off.



After I got off the ground, and paid the more than thirty dollars for half a tank, I thought back to the president’s press conference today when one of the reporters asked him about whether he agreed that the price of oil was headed towards $4.00 a gallon; he looked nonplussed. And said he hadn’t heard that.



The president based on what he said and his expressions indicated that he didn’t have a clue about gas prices.



Some might say that’s understandable. He doesn’t fill his gas tank.



And when he goes to the ranch, he doesn’t worry about how many taxpayer dollars are required to rush him and his family and aides to his weekend vacation spot. Fortunately for him, he doesn't have to worry about taking his pills or filling the gas tank.



Ronald Reagan in his eight years, accumulated one complete year at the Reagan ranch at the cost of 50,000 dollars a round trip.



Bush will exceed Reagan's excesses at his home in Texas but nobody is willing to estimate what it will cost taxpayers—the poor of course since the rich barely pay taxes.



It is a shame at a time of need that we have a president who has absolutely no understanding of the pain the people are suffering at the hand of his policies and his slavish commitment to take care of his friends.



It is called screwing the nation and it is reflected in everything he does, not necessarily in what he says.



But what’s more disheartening is where is the outcry from our officials.



They have enough material to give a speech every single day on one of his policies, violations, or complete avoidance of doing his job. And where are the investigations promised with the elections of 06?



It is a bloody shame that we get screwed with a loss of jobs and then must pay for keeping this damned government afloat.



A pox on all their houses.



And you can quote me on that!....



Les Aaron

MSNBC interview gives the lie to McCain's accounts....


Did you watch MSNBC tonight, the report on Iraq.



It was Reynolds who was reporting on current events in Iraq.



It gives the lie to everything McCain says and show him to be either an incorrigible liar or so misguided that I wouldn’t trust him to give me directions for crossing the street.



I remember when Reynolds first started. He was right out of school and traveled to Iraq doing freelance writing. Later, he was picked up by NBC to be their man on the spot. He was full of enthusiasm, anxious to make his mark.



Not today! Today, he is a changed man.



Here's an update.



Reynolds moved to the Green Area several years ago.



Life was originally pretty good there.



But things have worsened for him.



He has lost friend after friend. He says that he is unable to leave the zone so he sends Iraqi photographers to cover the scene and pick up on what he’s missing.



He admits to being a virtual prisoner.



Any ventures out are few and far between after the last kidnapping attempt.



He has had his hotel room blown out three times and that’s in the Green Zone.



And he has seen many of his good friends killed from bombs or targeted efforts.



It sounds the polar opposite of the way McCain describes it.



Reynolds reports on people living delusional lives. They can’t go out, so they pretend that they are going out. They get all dressed and stay home. Men are drinking more.

Nobody sleeps throughout the night.



Reynolds who was rock calm four years ago, now seems depressed, nervous and a pale shadow of himself.



To see somebody so fall apart before your eyes is an indictment of everything that our government says that we are doing to alleviate the problems and make Baghdad a safe city.



Clearly, it is not working.

\

And anyone seeing this special on MSNBC would get the message.



If McCain is going to hang his hat on this flimsiest of arguments, he is already dead in the water.



But no one ever went broke underestimating the American public.



So much for McCain’s version of Thru the Looking Glass….



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon

Banks: Lowering the Bar

To do business with your local bank, they require you to meet a higher standard.
You have to conform to their minimums and this usually means that you are capable of managing your own affairs and having a positive balance.

If they were only so scrupulous when it came to their own affairs.

What many may not realize is that banks and financial institutions have been skirting bankruptcy for some time and that current poor lending policies and the sub prime lending affair has pushed many close to the edge.

To remedy this lack of vision, or myopic view, the banks have sought out “allies,” or those who will bail them out.

What nobody seems ready to talk about is that when they do find these rescuers, they tend not to be from this country, but foreign countries…. And guess what? They are not individuals or corporations but the countries themselves.

Merrill Lynch for example is knee deep with Singapore. Others, like Morgan Stanley, other foreign governments.

Is this good for America?

When foreigners decide domestic investment and banking policy, it would seem to only add an unknown dimension to what is already a shaky proposition.

Ironically, it is the result of easing up on the regulations on banking which the institutions, themselves, have proposed.

So, now when you’re paying your usurious rates, you may ask yourself who the hell is my money going to? And you might be right in suspecting the Far East or the Gulf Region.

So picture this hypothesis, to pay for your oil, who’s profits go back to the Middle East, you might have to take an additional loan which is partially financed with Middle East money. In the end, the loaning country could benefit multiple ways while your bank holds on for dear life.

Not a pleasant prospect one might think.

But, remember, over all, we have supported American companies for their tendency to reward their officers for bad decisions which ultimately weaken the banks and make us dependent abroad as their obligations to foreign countries grows as we continue to pile up trade debt.

Huh?


And that’s only one way to look at it.

Les Aaron
The Contrarian

The Committee for Positive Change
http://www.Lesaaron.blogspot.com

How Do You Beat An Unbeatable Candidate?

Or Causes for Conservative Migraines:



SETTING UP OBAMA....


Hey, that was a pretty sleazy tactic, Candidate McCain.

You arrange for some red-necked radio disk jockey to bash Obama...and, mind you, threaten him on camera...

And you claim you had nothing to do with it, arriving just after he finished.

And then after your speech, you declare you are shocked.

You are shocked?

Why didn't you say anything when you first stepped before your followers.

Why did you wait until after they left to make that declaration.

Doesn't that ring a little hollow.

And then to go through your apologies when nobody was there was just a little bit disingenuous don't you think?

If you think you're going to win with these kind of tactics, Senator, perhaps you should think again.

It just shows that you're dated and no better than the rest of your conservative haters.

Les Aaron

Obamarama

We’ll I put on my raincoat and carefully adjusted my splatter guard.

I pulled the top down on my all weather cap and then flipped on the TV.

I was ready to have the kitchen dumped on me. Well, if not me, certainly Obama.



Hillary was out for blood, at least according to her earlier outcries and I thought it was going to be the next best thing to Chiller Theatre.



Hillary started out defensive, shrill and sarcastic.



But it didn’t work so she backed away very quickly.



Some people can pull that stuff off; but Hillary can’t and she figured that out in time to save her campaign.



Mostly, the final forum turned out to be a rehash of Hillary’s and Obama’s programs with a mind-deadening twenty two minutes spent on the differences in their health care programs.



But, overall, it was a disappointment.



Especially if you are the blood and gore type.



Nobody even got wet.



There were no decisive winning blows; no fusillade of ideas that changed minds and voting predilections!



And by the end, it was beginning to feel like I was hanging around the general store then engaging in a blow by blow finale of a fight to the finish.



People were exchanging kind words and by the end, Hillary sounded all sweetness and light again and Obama was kindly and affectionate.



Wow! It was a transformation from the surprise dinner for a Soprano victim to old hearth in 90 minutes and, you know, it felt good.



Hillary reinforced all of her strong points. We heard again that she was ready to take over from Day One….but Obama reinforced the point that his judgment was better despite his lack of experience. The difference was undeniable.



All told, my heart climbed back in my chest and I thought that both parties had conducted themselves with decency and aplomb.



Clearly, it’s okay to have differences and it would be left for the voters to decide who plotted a decent course knowing that Hillary had the mastery of content, and Obama had the mojo!



All’s well that ends well. At least, one suspects, that will be Obama’s refrain.



Les Aaron

LET'S KEEP IT FROM GETTING TOXIC!



From Wonderment to Disappointment: The World Watches


How can we go so fast from awe to depression?


It seems impossible.


Only a few short weeks ago, we were enamored with the ranks of democratic candidates.

Surely, we fielded the best range of candidates anywhere in the world.

We were the envy of every progressive western nation.


So, what happened?


What happened was the fact that winning became everything.



And then the dirt started to fly.



And it had the potential to become real ugly.Each of us must be thinking: Wouldn’t it be great if we could just cut it off here and now.



We all know about as much as we are going to know.



The only thing we will hear from here on out are the charges—typically wildly extravagant.



And we will learn how inventive and how exaggerated attacks can become in the interests of winning th prize.



Frankly, we were on a roll.



The more realistic of us knew it couldn’t last, but it was great while it did.



Right up to the debate last week, when Hillary and Barack seemed to hug and make-up.



Up to that point, it was basically a pretty decent campaign with only a few hurtful deviations and some bad mouthing.



But we could live with that.



Now, it seems one of the candidates thinks that it’s okay to empty the kitchen drawer on her opponent.



And it isn’t working.



All it does do is detract from the qualities of the candidates and give ammunition to the opposition.



If I had my druthers, I would implore them to stop now while a case can still be made for rationality.



If it goes any further, it could turn toxic and I don’t think anybody wants to see it get to that point.



So, if you’re writing your check, or calling your friend with the campaign, tell them that no matter what they do at this point, it’s not going to change opinions.



And it can only dampen their chances.



That’s my message as we enter into tonight’s free-for-all where it’s likely they will be handing out rain coats to those in the first few rows….



Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change

www.lesaaron.blogspot.com

If We Had Taken This Simple Step Eight Years Ago,
We Wouldn't be in Iraq Today, We Wouldn't be Facing a Failing Economy, We Would Have Licked Global Warming and We'd Have a Lot More Friends in the World....

Let's Not Do It Again!

In this race to win the top spot, we tend to support our candidates based upon a view that tends to separate them from real life. We view them more or less in a vacuum which tends to provide a rather sterile perspective.

Who are these flesh and blood creatures we periodically elect to lead our country forward?

And are we entirely too casual about the process?

It’s at times like this when we need the proverbial nudge.

So here we go….

The fact is that in most cases, we have forgotten to ask the fundamental questions: What is your philosophy? How do you approach a problem? Do you tend challenges as discrete or as part of a more complex set of questions? And, most importantly, who are your icons; who influence you most? The last one is the time bomb.

If we knew who Bush’s friends were would we have paid him a second glance?
If we knew he didn’t read books, would we have voted for him? If we knew he had no intellectual curiosity, would we choose him to lead the free world?

Doubtlessly not!

We forgot to ask stuff like that when Bush ran the first and second time.

And it’s something we never seem to do; yet, their friends and colleagues tend to make them who they are; they are the one’s loyalty is owed to; the one’s they listen to.

Shouldn’t demand to know as much about their circle of friends as we do about the candidates themselves?

After all, we are going to have to live with them for a long, long time?.

And on a priori basis, it would seem that friends, who they are and what they believe, can provice a keen insight into a person, his or her character, their belief systems, their philosophy.

How do we know Mother Theresa? We know her for the people she’s helped.

How did we know Roosevelt? By his wife and friends.

Would we have elected Carter if we knew his friends?

Would the people have abandoned Stevenson if we knew the people in his live?

Wouldn’t we have rushed to tip the vote to Kennedy even faster if we knew what kind of quality advisers he would bring in?

I mean there are all sorts of examples.

Would we have voted in Bush if he had lined up his Cabinet appointments in advance—all under skilled and under motivated -- to represent the interests of the American people.

Probably, the friends and associates of the candidates are the most important people in the world right now, and most of them we may not even know.

Shouldn’t that be something critical? Shouldn’t it be something we address in the waning hours of this Primary season?

It would seem that way to this critic who has more than passing experience keeping track of who’s who and what’s what in politics for more than the last few decades. Think about it, and do yourself a favor….

Check it out!

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change

A Window Onto INterior Rot...

Despite the Masquerade, it’s the little things that give you away!

Want to see how a government performs, see how they deal with their priorites—even how they handle some of their smaller issues. If they cannot handle the public’s needs with objectivity and dispatch, it may be a sign of a much more severe malady.

The perfect example, it seems, is how we are addressing the problem of the missing bees.

While the bee keepers seem to be the most well informed observers of what has happened, it seems that they have had trouble getting officials to listen to them.

Listen to what they’ve been through, and you can almost figure out who the culprit is…

But that’s not how the authorities view it.

They go through the whole litany of potential causes for the problem seemingly unawares that they are operating against a closing window. If they miss that window, it could be all over, not only for the operators, but the bees, themselves.

Viewing how they are approaching the challenges stuns one with incredulity.

Instead of taking the best possible suspect and working back from there, they are treating all potential maladies, some of which don’t even apply, equally.

To me, it seems to be a case of anti-profiling eliminating all of the obvious non-causes, before dealing with those with Saudi passports..

Nonetheless, if they really wanted to address the program, they’d begin to talk to the hive owners and the bee keepers. For, surely, when it comes to the challenges facing the bees, they seem to be most knowledgeable of all.

Witness the 60 minutes repeat of an earlier show that tracked the disappearance of virtually entire hives….

And why is that important?

Specifically, it’s important because most fruits and nuts depend upon the bees pollinating the plants.

Listen to the bee keepers and then the government, and you can shake your head so often, it could be in danger of falling off.

The fact of the matter is that this is not a new problem.

Owners have been observing this anomaly for more than a year.

They have reported it in detail but nobody listens.

The government insists upon going through all of the possibilities in its own slow, methodical way that suffers from a lack of logic or the ‘profiling’ of events leading up to the original losses of the bees and the current challenges facing the hives.

It seems that the problem stems from memory loss, the bees are being distracted, lose memory and forget how to return to their hives; whatever is causing this aberration is causing the hives to break down and even other bees in related hives, are no longer interested in these some-how affected hives—which is highly unusual in bee circles.

One of the biggest potential losers pointed to a relatively new insecticide that seems to reduce deaths to ancillary species, a product made by Bayer that contains a by-product of caffeine as a primary ingredient.

Most bee keepers think that this new product is the culprit.

Why?

Because the bee problem happened after it was introduced.

Yet, the agencies charged with investigating the problem seem to go on in their almost blaze way to begin with the hives and the various challenges and other problems associated with the hives trying to rule them out one by one.

The trouble is this is a foolish luxury and that time is running out.

Many bee keepers have had to incur big loans to continue in business.

And many are facing staggering losses yet the government bureaucracy seems to move like molasses on the problem.

Anyone who has dealt with the government over the last eight years has noticed this reluctance to point the finger at big business as the probable cause of virtually anything.

Their lobbyists effectively keep the government snoops from the door. And we have seen this tendency time after time….

In the old days, this problem would have been likely solved at the university level or through private researchers; today, most of these are under contract to government or the private sector and deprive the country of one of its most important research sources.

Nonethless, in following what the government has done, we see all of the problems of moving industry people into government jobs to which they will return when they complete their tours with the government. They are not anxious to rock the boat or point their fingers at a possible future employer; nor is the government anxious to pursue a possible cause and lose a major source of political funding.

For many who observe the workings of our government, it has come down to inefficiency and sinecures and the power of the lobbies that is deciding the way our government functions and it is not functioning well at all no matter where you look. From the postpone of OSHA regulations to the way we clamp down on China.

With the bees, time is running out. Those who pooh pooh the issue, will discover that if we don’t act intelligently and objectively to resolve this problem within the next year, the fruit and nuts we enjoyed could literally disappear from supermarket shelves.

But it doesn’t end there, this methodology is also instructive because it applies on a much broader scale.

The tendency to blame everything else but the real cause stems from the government to rewrite facts in order to prove their own case.

If it is happening with bees, it is also happening with Global Warming, alternative energy, perverse changes in habitat, the loss of species, the postponement of OSHA clean air acts, the failure to prescreen what enters this country ad infinitum.

Little lies often lead to big problems.

And through the bees we begin to see how interior rot can eat away all the good things done by previous administrations.

It’s not enough that we will see the end of this crew forthwith, it is more important that we recognize that we have to right the ship of state now….

Les aaron
The Committee for Positive Change…

The Book Center: Check it out: email: owlgrabber1@yahoo.com

Why they shot down the satellite?

I don't know how anybody come out of this generation without being totally cynical about virtually everything.

In the House of Bush,nothing is quite as it seems--a feeling they've cultivated by their words and actions.

Therefore, it is not unseemly or illogical to prognosticate on the spy satelite that was just disspelled from the Heavens
because it was not functioning.

It seems perfectly ordinary to question their simplest comments to apply the ruse tests.

Was this really something else.

For one, they used it as another unrealistic tests of the anti-missile system that has cost this government some 164 billion dollars and has yet
to show that it can bring down an enemy missile.

Up til now, all the tests have been rigged in one way or another so that the system would look far superior than it is....

aside from that argument, one wonders whether they chose to use the occasion to teach the Chinese a lesson.

Why not? It's a very credible thought. Last year, the Chinese used their technology to blow up a satellite why shouldn't we return the gesture...

We are always strutting around flaunting our superiority while the Chinese say little and cash in on our arrogance at every turn.

My guess is that the CIA and other NSA didn't want the guts of that satellite getting post mortems from the so-called opposition.

Who was it supposed to be getting the dirt on?

The Iranians? The Chinese? Our so-called other Mid=Eastern friends?

I guess we'll never know until one of the key guys in the administration, intent upon maintaining his lifestyle long after Bush becomes after dinner humor decides to write the penultimate book.

And we will discover that the Satellite de jour was designed to spy on the American people in total opposition to the Constitution.

Why not, they've attempted to sanction such behavior every other way....

And are not bleating their unhappiness over the fact that Bush's self-appointed "rights" have not been extended and he's missing out on what Nancy Pelosi is saying to the maid; or what Kerry and Biden are talking about.

Nixon was the paranoid twit who's attempts at finding out what the others were thinking was severely hampered; Bush has solved that problem by tuning into anything and everything and drawing up charges to put us all away.

If nothing else, we should know by now not to believe Bush & Company's stated reasons for doing anything.

And the people who do that best will be the survivors of a White House gone mad!


Les Aaron

Foot In Mouth Disease


Bill O’Reilly, FOX’s spokesperson for the hater on every level, has done it again.
Even after Bush has spoken out about the unfairness to minorities and the use of intimidation and fear and the threat of lynching that shaped most of those early days those of us of good conscience wish had never been part of early America, loathsome Bill has managed to introduce the “L” word into his diatribe on the wife of Barack Obama when he stated unequivocally and unreservedly that he wouldn’t advocate a lynching party in her name unless of course it was proven true. What he was referring to was the off-hand remark of Michelle when she stated that this was the first time in her adult life when she felt proud to be an American.

What an awful and dumb thing to say, qualifying him for all time as Keith Olbermann’s Worst Person In the World!

Bill OReilly, the worst face of Irish bias still extant, the arbiter of what is dumb and dumber, managed to do it again: Stick his foot in the organ of his regurgitation of endless ka ka….He is so dumb, so biased, and so loud mouthed that he could not think of how else to bring up the most repellent idea that has ever threatened those among us who are brothers and descended from the common family tree.

An apology is due to the American people to first have to be exposed to such unbecoming trash and, secondly, from FOX’s Executive Board from using the services of such a numbskull to distort the news and fragment the population yet further in this already divided land.

I am offended and perturbed that such crapola mucks up the airwaves and distinguishes us for our ugliness and hatreds that never seem to go away, but always lie just beneath the surface of some of us…..

FOX has become a continuing travesty that represents a tiny percentage of the population and virtually no one with a brain and a sense of fair play.

When are we going to demand of them that they give up their base of small minded haters and get with the program; or disappear finally and totally from the broadcasting scene. They are the penultimate embarrassment to the rest of the world.

For the rest of the world, my personal apologies to Michelle Obama.

Forgive us for we know not what we do!....


Les AAron

The Test of the West…

It was not that long ago, that many of us thought that the West was an open and pristine area immune from the squabbling and problems of the much more densely populated east. It was the place for us to think about when we thought about wide open spaces, the restorative powers of Earth and the place where man was dwarfed by his environment….

A nice thought to hold.


In our view, the West was big enough to absorb any challenge and bounce back.

Guess again!


In fits and starts, we have learned the West is subject to the same challenges that have mucked up things in the East and then a few more that we hadn’t considered…

When I say fits and starts, I am talking about those little hints that began bouncing off our antennae maybe fifty years ago…. .

For me, it began with something personal. The death of a young and healthy Army pilot who was ordered to fly through nuclear clouds in the West to gather research for some military project..

He followed orders.. And then died an untimely death due to cancer with nobody putting two and two together.. But then it didn’t just happen to him, it happened to others who traveled in the lands where nuclear weapons were tested and radiation remained to leave its invisible legacy that would strike down countless more…….

How little we understood about it when we lost our penultimate American hero, John Wayne, to lung cancer because he made his films not far from where the military tested its weapons..

Was Nature trying to tell us something then?

And why didn’t we listen.

But that was only the beginning….

After that, it was one thing after another.

But never has the West proven more vulnerable than it has under Bush & Company.

Development and drilling rights have been given out by the hundreds. At last count, some 800 development rights, a few with direct ties to Bush Sr., consultant, sites that have been plumbed and exhausted, drenched with cyanide and other heavy metals, with no concern for any living creature….

Developers have been destroying beautiful vistas with their drilling all over the West.

Coal miners have leveled beautiful peaks leaving in their place only eyesores….

Miners have contaminated the earth by pumping in cyanide that is used to separate gold from the earth.

This residue doesn’t automatically go away but penetrates into the land mass affecting aquifers and other lands used for grazing.

Developers and miners do minimal repairs to the environment and the scars as a result are widespread.

In pristine parklands, the president has approved legislation to use five percent of parklands for transportation saying that drilling cannot occupy more than twenty percent of the pristine lands. Only, the helter-skelter way in which land was used for roadways has literally destroyed the environment for already challenged species…

And turned these beautiful parks into blights on the collective consciousness….

Government storage facilities in the north-west are leaching toxic chemicals into aquifers and river beds that are critical to the survival of species.

Development of dams along the Columbia has seriously impacted the survival of wild salmon and cut off the principal supply of food of Native peoples as well as species dependent on salmon for their own survival.

Global warming and other environmental set backs have impacted Lake Meade and the principal source of water for the entire southwest; there are no alternatives. But the government shows no concern.

In the meantime, farmers and agrarian interests fight over access to water, their most precious commodity. And it can only get worse….

Resettlement programs for bison and the wolves are clashing with cattle barons in the north of Yellowstone; these wild animals are not used to be confined to any one geographic area…. Clearly, there is no interest in coexistence.

Out of control fires due to bad planning and the failure to eliminate old brush, plus planting of species of greenery that is not compatible with this kind of geology, does not auger well for native species in the California, Wyoming and other thickly forested areas.

Overcrowding and over building in parts of Colorado and other areas have surpassed attempts to provide intelligent infrastructure….

Over building in Las Vegas has challenged the availability of fresh water……

Storage of nuclear waste continues to be a problem….

Smog overrides much of Denver….

What to do?

Rethink a strategy that says the West is tough enough to prevail.

It’s not.

And only when all men can sit down in good faith and discuss the issues intelligently can there be a resolution to problems that are not going to go away by themselves.

Les Aaron

What do you think happened at the debate?



Hillary was about as good as you can get.



She doesn’t miss a word; she makes her point.



She is on-target, informed, professional and capable.



But as good as she was, Obama was better.



He’s grown in presence and stature at these debates—oftentimes, before our eyes.



He doesn’t stop down for the cheap shots…and, even if you’re against him, you got to like his class and style.



I can see why everyone relates to him.



He elevates the species—not only black men, but all men and women.



And while he talks a message of ‘hope’ which is right down his alley, what he is doing is giving us confidence. Confidence that maybe we can rise up above those who have dominated politics for so long. Confidence that we can turn things around and make the world a better place.



You can’t argue with that.



It is simply a better message than experience.



Moreover, he is virtually impossible to attack.



Not that Hillary didn’t try on one or two occasions—but they all fell short.



They looked like cheap shots….



And I think even Hillary was embarrassed to make those cases.



The truth is that there’s about a hairs-breadth that separates the two of them.



And while she did most things right; she didn’t penetrate his armor.



She did have one special moment and that was at the closing when she was talking about visiting military hospitals and how our wounded veterans have it so much worse than any of the rest of us do… And then she said not to worry about either of them because they will be alright and that in the end, the democratic party will come together and go on to Victory.



That was her shining moment but it didn’t change the momentum.



In some ways, her parting speech was somewhat of a parting shot that seemed to say if I don’t win, at least I gave it my best shot and we will all come together anyway.



And that was a class way to end the debate.



Les Aaron

"Using Somebody Else's Words..."

When i was a professor teaching language arts and communications, I discovered that there is a very distinct difference between generations.

On the first paper of the school season, I had my socks knocked off to see how many young people plagiarized much of their material; nor did they see anything particularly wrong with it.

There was a significant gap here between what we had been taught and what the current generation believes.

I have a theory on that.

If they see it on the computer screen, it seems it is fair game whether it appeared on the screen without credit or attribution.

That seems like a slippery slope.

It is dishonest to use other's words as your own unless you give attribution.

If you don't, that is plagiarism.

In the past fifteen years, I can recall several well known authors who were caught in plagiarism.

They tried to blow it off themselves by suggesting that it got confused in their notes....or they didn't interpret their notes correctly.

Is this credible?

Shouldn't you recognize your own writing over somebody else's; and they were of a generation to know better.

In these situations, using somebody else's words without attribution or an appropriate fun is still a crime.

Obama's use of his friend's words seem to strike a discordant note because if his gift of oratory and content is not his own, what is?

If nothing else, in the absence of experience, it casts doubt.

I explained to my students that you just couldn't download someone else's words and use them as your own. And after drum beating it into them, I think they understood.

Obama should have known better.

Since right now, his strength is his words.

Les Aaron

It's All Over But the Shouting!


Unless there’s some major fall-out; unless someone tells us that this is all a conservative plot, I cannot see Hillary getting the nod at this point.



It just won’t happen.



In the end, it still boils down to numbers.



Hillary couldn’t win before because she didn’t have the numbers…



Now, she can’t win, because she blew off the Virginia, Maryland primaries….



The watershed, I suspect, will turn out to be South Carolina.



They misjudged. Hillary and Bill, that is.



They thought that they could “nuance” their words; but they were caught at it.



And the voting public didn’t like what they saw.



It was the same old thing.



In this case, dirty pool.



Nobody likes dirty pool.



Especially now!



It just reinforced the concept of CHANGE in all its permutations!



As it promulgated the changing of allegiances….



All those who thought of Bill as the first black president, were wondering if he wasn’t really an Uncle Tom, ready to switch positions for finite advantage.



It was a long shot.



And it didn’t work.



Everything went down hill after that.



With Obama staying above the fray and chalking up victories in ten states in a row.



It’s hard to come back from something like that.



In this case, it’s almost impossible.



Perhaps there’s still a miracle in the offing; but I doubt it.



She would have to win in all three states to stay a contender with 65 percent of the vote….



That’s not likely to happen!



Especially with shifting attitudes.



No doubt, this Primary season will be studied for many years to come….



McCain, virtually dead, no money, no support, coming back to life long enough to become frontrunner!.



The Giuliani strategy that was no strategy at all.



The Mormon who spent forty million dollars to come up short….



Huckabee, the candidate with no money, becoming number two.



Dodd, Richardson, and Biden, the experience candidates not together earning any kind of real recognition….



And, Edwards, who turned his friendly 2004 approach into an angry campaign that nobody wanted to hear….



All that and more….

In a raucous 2008 Primary Season….

"Is Douglas Wilder Prescient?"


What Douglas Wilder, the former governor of Virginia, said today would not have been whispered to six months ago.

It shows the regrettable depth of feeling and shift in support for the Clinton campaign as a direct result of the words of Bill Clinton during his role in the South Carolina primary and, in it, there is a valuable lesson for all democrats.

The winds of change have shifted.

Douglas Wilder has aggressively spoken out about the “first black president,” arguing that he has reduced the primaries largely to a question of racial politics.

Clearly, Douglas Wilder is at the extreme point of view; but other black Clinton loyalists are also uneasy about their continuing support of Clinton in view of his words.

There is no doubt here which there should be because of the Clinton’s long support of minorities on racial issues.

Nonetheless, Clinton’s words had a punishing effect that has helped erode dozens of years of support

Douglas Wilder’s comments are only the latest in what appears to be the potential for a Watershed for the Democratic Party.

If we follow the likely course of the rest of the Primaries, neither candidate can emerge by themselves with enough votes to win the nomination.

Therefore, it is likely that the Party will be left with very few cards in its hands to prevent the possibility of a disaster at the Convention.

One, is the likelihood that Michigan and Florida will come into play again.

If that’s the case, the challenge will be in deciding fairly who should receive the votes. As of now, there are various options on the table—from splitting the votes to having a caucus to decide who the winner should be. This runs counter to Hillary Clinton’s wishes since she had won the unofficial primary in both states.

The second possibility is that the Super delegates will vote their interests and preference instead of going along with the popular vote. If that should happen, we will find the depths of each candidate’s support is masked by growing rancour that can only pour out if the Super Delegates do not support the popular vote. This will make the eventual candidate task of winning substantially harder.

Nor are the Republicans likely to let us forget our missteps.

The third possibility is that John Edwards will decide for one of the remaining two and tilt the election in their favor.

With both sides building up their animosities, there is a very real chance that if the people vote one way and the Super Delegates another, this may become a Convention marred by disunity and discord which would further isolate Democrats, discourage cross-over voting and the support of Independents and help build momentum for McCain.

In the end, the disunity being seen in the Republican camp may evanesce if the conservatives manage to gather their disparate ends for the sake of Party unity and that they will present a Party united against the Democrats.

Right now, the close tallies, well within the margins of error for the most part, indicate that the Democratic landslide predicted may evaporate if accord is not reached during the Convention. If that doesn’t happen, be prepared for anything.

Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change

"The End is Near"





Do you remember the derelict types who used to hang outside of Automats with their signs about the World Coming to an End….and you would look at them as if they came from another planet.



Guess what? I think it may be time to get out the signs again.



I never thought that I would say that but there are convincing reasons that those signs should be aimed at the democratic party.



If you are a star-gazer, you probably know that before a star dies, it gives forth a burst of energy as if it were in the very prime of its existance. .



We seem to be in that phase now…



In fact, everything looks good. We’ve got two good if not great candidates and the republicans are in disarray; but things tend to look a lot better than they are.



And this is typically the case.



For one, when all is said and done, the out of touch seventy one year old McCain is only within the margin of error of winning no matter who is up against.



How can that be?



Where is the logic?

People want to put as much distance as possible between themselves and Bush & Co.


The conservatives support Huckabee.



The Evangelicals are not sure whether they will support the republicans.



And there are more independents than there are republicans.



Obama has swept away the barriers to cross-over voting and winning the Independents which he has done handily.



So what’s wrong?



What’s wrong is the success of each candidate past Super Tuesday when most pundits thought that the primary would be settled one way or another.



The current thinking is that we may go into the convention with neither candidate controlling enough votes to win.



With Hillary being swept aside by the last primaries and Obama looking increasingly like the ‘front runner,’ she has very options.



Her advisers tell her that she has to make Obama fail for her to gain ascendancy.



And Hillary does not like to lose.



That means a debate very unlike the one in Hollywood before Super Tuesday.



Hillary has got to make Obama look poorly informed or hit on his lack of preparedness or find some kind of flaw in his background or record.



This will not be easy; nor will it lighten the mood.



So, count on this; things are bound to get messy!



If vileness and vituperation and claim and counter claim are what is remembered, it could leave a very bitter residue of bad feelings.



And it will color the convention.



If Obama is still winning, and Hillary supporters push the delegates to throw their weight her way, it could actually result in a break in the party that may not be healed for generations.



The other option is revisiting Michigan and Florida, both of which Hillary won.

But giving each candidate all of the remaining delegates will not in itself result in a win.



So we are left between a rock and a hard place.



Howard Dean has anticipated this and doesn’t want to go to convention with the prospect of major discord….so we’ll have to see how they manage to mollify both sides.



My guess is that they will divide the delegates and both votes and give each half.



Of course, whatever happens it can only help McCain and that is the worry.



Pundits from the past have always said that the election is the democrats to lose.



And never was the point more insightful than it is now as we prepare for Texas, Pennsylvania and Ohio.



What happens there, will not stay in either place; but it may just change the shape and even the existence of the party of the people.



Be forewarned.



Les Aaron

The committee for Positive Change

hubmaster@aol.com.


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Rough Stuff Ahead?

That’s what the signals seem to suggest.



They were doing the projections last night on CNN and MSNBC…. Matt, Keith, Wolfe, and the rest.



And sometimes it looked as if they were one step removed from guessing....

With the aid of computers, however, before the end of the Show, these political gurus showed what would happen if both Hillary and Obama won.



If Hillary won, we would as of now beat McCain in the polls by one percentage point.



That’s too damn close!



If Obama won, the win was about six percent.



This was shocking to me.



If the Republican Party was so out of touch and in such disarray as everyone claims , how come they would do so well in these early polls?



That’s what troubled me.



Of course, I realize that a lot of things can change between now and November.



But one thing was clear, this was not going to be a clean sweep!....



If McCain wanted a 100 year war, why were people willing to support him to that extent?



It was clear that something was wrong; that something wasn’t logical that was happening….



What we did know was that democrats were coming out two to one over republicans.



And the cable stations point out that the record numbers were primarily due to young people becoming active and getting involved in politics. There was no other explanation;

That Obama was scoring large with Independents and even Republicans were supporting him.



So, if that were the case, why was McCain, a seventy one year old Veteran doing so well?



yet, when push came to shove, it was a virtual dead heat among candidates, if you could put any credibility in these early, early polls.





McCann didn’t seem to understand the economy; he didn’t seem to be current with the latest technology or scientific strides and he seemed to see little reason for bringing back jobs lost overseas.



So what was he about?



. All he could talk about, it seemed, was pushing through Bush’s tax cuts, which he had originally opposed, the Surge which was so out of kilter with the facts that it would have been laughable if so many American lives weren’t involved. What was it about the man that he was able to come up so strong against the much more popular democrats who were coming out in droves to support their candidate?



What’s more, McCain isn’t even liked by the economic conservatives, those who feel that he has no grasp of conservative economic policies.



Nor does he seem to score big with the Huckabee crowd of Evangelicals.



Nevertheless, he still is only separated from the two democrats by as little as a single percentage point. That is the other shoe that’s so hard to understand.



Let’s look at the numbers. What the pundits are saying is that the broad coalition of conservatives and Evangelicals may tally up to as many as thirty five million voters. In the past, they voted to support Bush; now, their loyalties may have shifted because they are no longer of one mind regarding what an Evangelical stands for.



Some have moved more to the Green movement; they want to save the environment; some like the Hispanic Evangelicals and the Pentecostals, are considering more than just anti-abortion, or anti gay rhetoric, they want their movement to be more community conscious, more people oriented and their belief that Bush’s core is somewhat xenophobic about Hispanics…..



What’s more, today, many former republicans have joined the ranks of independents.

They don’t want to be pigeon-holed as a rubber stamp for Bush policies. Nonetheless,

McCain has done well with independents; and he has done well with ex-Military.

People seem to relate to his independent nature while the conservatives damn him for the same qualities.



Despite the rush that democrats feel, don’t count on this election as being an easy win.

There are still 60% of republicans who feel that Bush is doing a good job and 50% of the voters surveyed who feel that the war against Iraq was justified. All of which makes a rather complicated scenario for second-guessing this election.



What we do know is that Obama has cut deep into Hillary’s lead in the polls and that no matter what happens it seems that it will go into April before being decided.



The real danger is that to guarantee a win or change in fortunes, the next debate or speech may degenerate into charges left and right and those charges could splinter the democratic party and give McCain all the ammo he needs to make up the six points in the polls.



With the candidates’ ability to be elected a growing priority among voters, and Hillary’s high negatives that have not come down among possible fence straddlers and Independents, it may just well be that we could find ourselves in an election where the bad feelings and hostility on both sides has fractured the party and our chances at a win.



This is the prognosis that gives me shivers as we strive for some decent rationales.



Les Aaron

The committee for Positive Change

A DNA Liberal



When I was going up Kierkegaard and the French philosophers were all the rage as we played back and forth with the greatest notion of our time, Free Will. We believed that we could decide our own fate; it was the ultimate Darwinian expression of freedom and it influenced our times in more ways than one... Free Will, I suspect, saw its ultimate manifestation in the Hippie movement and later in the selfish seventies when the earlier hippies gave up the sense of community and decided it was more important to enrich themselves.



Free Will was also peverted by those in government who failed to fulfill their obligations to the people.

The idea so dominated our young lives that we really believed we could be anything we wanted to be. It didn't matter that I was the child of the Depression, if I was so inclined, I could become president of the United States.

But with the findings of Edward O. Wilson, all that is changing.



Wilson, you see, from his study of insects has told us that we are all hard-wired from birth.



Oh no, you mean we were born all circumscribed with invisible binds that caused us to become workers, or guards, or soldiers?

What a thought.

That had to put the brakes on for all of those who were busy inventing the next best thing.



Of course, this has Darwinists jumping out of windows…



That was just too grim a thought to endure.



To make matters worse, it doesn't end there. Now , we are told, our political orientation may be part of our genetic being.



You are either liberal or conservative by birth. God forbid!



Of course, that suggests that free will is all la canard, a sick trick to make us think we are important players on the stage of life. And that free will actually plays no role in who we are and what we become. We are all products of our DNA; and forget the "nurture" stuff.....



That no matter what we do, we can’t change the outcome.



But how true could that be.



Remarkably so, if we follow the studies of identical twins; not twins who have lived together but who have been separated at birth.



These studies show that the twins traits are remarkably similar for identical twins.



That means no matter how much “nurture” that we are essentially hard-wired to be either liberal, libertarians, conservatives, or “Greens…”



Being a dedicated Darwinist, it’s hard for me to give up on people like Stephen J. Gould for Dawkins or some of the others who believe that there is no such thing as your surroundings, your environment, parents, etc, it has already been predecided.



Shades of St. Augustine, that is a depressing thought.



I wonder if I have a genetic twin who feels precisely the same way?



Anyway, it seems finding all the genetic twins would be like getting two votes for the price of one…..but that’s really grasping for straws if you’re a Darwinian by disposition.



Something to think about during the long four months ahead of us!



Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Changer

A Blueprint for the next four months!


What are the chances that if this goes much longer, we will all be in a stupor.



And it’s a vicious cycle.



We all began at the beginning.



We support our candidate.



And now about 37 days later, after all of the caucuses and votes, all the second guessing, and editorializing and punditry, are we any better off now than before it started?



The candidates are just about in the same position .



It seems that everything we’ve heard from the Talking Heads reawakens a kind of déjà vu.



Why? We’ve heard it all before. Now, the Heads are feeling the pressure. Not only do they repeat what happens, they tell us what is happening and what’s likely to happen./



It's a matter of telling each story each day three times multiplied by the number of Talking Heads....


The operative word here is that we are “Overlapped” to death!”



And there is no fast way out, no way to emerge from this smothering blanket of repetition that dulls, deludes, attempts to demystify and literally anaesthetizes the senses…



The commentators and their “guests panelists” that make up “the smartest editorial team on TV” are the same people they were when they weren’t the smartest editorial team on TV; most of them are being rewarded for no evident distinctions…. They are simply people who make their money this way. They are not some gifted prophets peering into the night. Most of them don’t know any more than we do…..



Of course, the candidates don’t help. They deliver their stump speeches over and over again. It’s sometimes what happens on the fringes, the slips, that become interesting in this constantly regurgitated epiphanies to sameness.



We hear that so and so is going to give a speech. We listen. It’s the same old stuff we heard last month with a few new modifications to reflect the area and different needs.



Each has their style. Obama never delivers detail while that’s all Hillary does until you close your eyes.



McCain says the same old thing he’s been saying since the Vietnamese let him go….



Huckabee says the same stuff over and over again but he says it in a friendly, folksy way….so that isn’t too hard to take….



And that makes it easier for the commentators not to switch their pitches….

Which even they are believing….



The only thing is that sometimes repeating the same thing over and over, whether or not the candidate said it, builds reinforcement for the message.



As a result, the magazines pick it up and rehash the words of the TV commentators leaving the candidate to salvage as much as possible from his real words that are predicated on a set of circumstances that they believe to be true.



McCain really believes that the Surge is working.



Huckabee believes we should change the Constitution so that we can have a Presbyterian party, an Anglo Party, a Lutheran Party—well, you get the picture.



Hillary believes that she is the underdog although she claims to be the “experience” candidate; Obama believes that he is the challenger, while he outscores Hillary.



Huckabee thinks he can win even though it’s a numerical impossibility.



Obama knows that he can win because Hillary won’t get the “cross-overs’ or the Independents.



All in all, there’s a lot of confusion made worse by the myriad interpretation of the words of the candidates…



And this is what we might have to sit through for another four months.



Where’s the Advil?



Les Aaron

DIMINISHING RETURNS....


Do we share this concern?


Some of the most sophisticated people you meet are saying that the upcoming Election is ours to lose.

And if you are old enough to remember Humphrey's loss in 1968, and the missteps of the Rainbow Coalition, you know that anything can happen in the days and weeks ahead to reverse democratic advantages that now exist.

Could too much exposure for the candidates and their rivalry actually work against Democratic plans for the upcoming Election?

With the potential for anything to happen, do you believe that the candidates could produce so much venom in their debates and nasty competitive maneuvering, that they could actually further polarize both sides supporting each candidate; with the resulting loss of cross-over voting while--at the same time-- consolidating the forces poised against the Democratic Party.

Do you believe that this is possible. That the democrats could actually talk themselves out of winning?

And if so, what could we do about it?...

What Hillary Hatred is All About!

Yes, sometimes it is easy to forget what the real world is like and thanks for reminding us.

I have moved out of my solid bastion of liberalism into an area that is conservative even in its democratic values, a place that is pretty homogeneous when it comes to good old-fashioned values. To survive, one has to embrace a kind of empathetic all encompassing point of view.
Many of my good republican friends tell me that they hate Bush and with the same breath, tell me that they could never imagine voting for Hillary.

Why the antipathy towards Hillary?

I can't imagine why....unless she is symbolic of all the things antithical to the South and I don't mean just politics.

Hillary is too liberal for the South; she is too out-spoken, perhaps, too anti-South in her outspoken in her values and attitudes; the same things that make her attractive in the north, work against her in the tradition-bound old fashioned, courtly ways of the South which are unfortunately laden with bias and hatreds.

I think it is harder for the average southern republican to consider voting for an outspoken woman than to support a black. Believe it or not.


I don't live in the south and I don't think I could ever live in places like Missippi or Tennesssee, or Alabama because they seem to be so entrenched in their religious values and dictating what the rest of us should do with their bodies and their offspring; although they are perfectly happy with perpetual wars and simply ignoring the needs of those less fortunate.

It is a curious state of mind.

I am not as bound by tradition as I am for the need to move forward in every way possible with our international relations, our commitment to the environment, and our technology to make us number one again. And I advocate doing what it takes; not listen to the babble of some Evangelical preacher who is going to tell me how to live my life which i think is pretty good, thank you. Not that I believe that every Evangelical preacher pleads war against the value-less crowds and dictates what I or my wife should be doing with her body.

When I was exploring the possibility of moving to Charlotte, my friends there told me that you never really get to know all the people you say, "hello" to. If you don't belong to their church, they may say hello but you will never be invited to their home.

In New York, we weren't so polite, but you always knew where you stood.

And you may not agree with your neighbor's point of view but that was okay.


I am of two states of mind on this.....


One, I am inclined to say screw you to those who would dictate to me t who to support because of their self-righteous stands; on the other hand, I am determined that we win. And that trumps everything else.

Les Aaron

The Voter Reanimated!


Holy Moly, folks, I wouldn’t have believed it if I wasn’t there.



In the half dozen times I’ve voted here, I’ve never seen more than one other soul and perhaps three or four octogenarians manning the voting boards here.



I had even been a greeter with the junior Senator from my state, an old air force pilot, and we stood outside and greeted the voters as they dribbled in.



So, I wasn’t expecting much to tell the truth.



But in this Primary, the past does not count.


And was I surprised to see the place packed.



There were three people taking names with three back-ups and two people setting up the simplified voting machines we use here. Don’t ask me if they make a permanent record. I don’t know although I wrote everybody to get us to back the paper ballot.



There had to be at least seventeen ahead of me and by the time I left, as many backing me up.



More than a few had canes and there were even a few people of color who showed up.


s.



And I even spotted one or two families coming in to do the right thing.


And these people were very serious voter

The former head of the Eastern Democratic president was there to resolve problems but I didn’t see a similar rep from the Republicans.



I realized that the voters now were playing for real.



For whatever reason, they were coming out to vote.



Both republicans and democrats both vote on the same day.



This was something different; this was proof positive that we the public sensed a transformation upon us and they were either for the status quo or for change.



This is a state that’s about split equally between both parties although the democrats outnumber republicans overall by about 50,000 votes.



In the south where we are, the balance shifts to the republicans but not by much.



Five years ago, there were 70,000 residents here; now there are over 200,000 and it is said that under the new land use plan, there will be room for another 2,000,000 people which will cause everybody to go bonkers because we are not set up infrastructure wise to handle those kind of overflow crowds.



Things are a’ changing as they say in Old Lewes, which happens to be the "first town" in the First State in the USA…Delaware.



Who would have thought that this sleepy old town is poised to have another surge in population?



But I guess you have to expect that in a State without Sales Tax and minimum real estate taxes….Sooner or later, folks catch on.



Especially when there are beaches and good fishing all around.


Meanwhile, most of us are all worked up about the Election ahead and wondering whether the dance of the candidates, for the dems at least, will last until March.



I guarantee that more people will be watching the news tonight than ever before and three quarters of them might be viewing from overseas!....



Something to think about as the world gets smaller and smaller.



Les Aaron

The committee for Positive Change

A Day of Reckoning!



The more you watch the polls and read the newspapers and listen to the talking heads,

You realize that we are being inundated with mythologies, false premises, and just blah-blah—blah to fill up news time.



Most of them quite literally don’t know what the hell they are talking about.



Some are kids who have been through one or two elections and are considering themselves experts; others are going by the polls that have proved enormously inaccurate. others just mouth inanities or look to mince words, or start trouble just to fill an hour with pettiness that seems to go unfiltered, unmonitored and uncontrolled. As a result, a lot of the chatter seems juvenile and needing the guiding hand of a strong, respected editor. Sorry, no such thing....



Doesn't it make you mad as hell to watch these imbeciles proffer their idiocy?



But there’s that hour to fill up!.....



Remember Saturday Night Live when Reagan got shot and Chevy Chase doing the take-off on the media.



Overall, I have to admit that I think Buchanan is more right more of the time than anyone else when it comes to figuring it out. Sorry critics!



I know he’s something else these days, not a Republican; certainly not a Democrat; perhaps more the Libertarian. I can’t be sure.



But he’s seen the game played from every angle and he’s worth listening to when you are reading Krugman or listening to some of the old prophets still beating their gums about who has the best chance….



The Washington Post had an interesting series on the Millennium generation, that generation born in the 1980’s going up to 92; they said that they are a far cry from Boomers; they are more hopeful, less aggressive, more eager to help each other out.



And they are more representative being a composite of black, Hispanic, liberal, gay, college graduate, etc.



One gets that impression looking at the followers of Obama who believe in his message of hope and it is a very contagious one….



I think Hillary would have done better talking about the candidate of hope but hope with experience instead of coming off as the most clinical of the candidate, the candidate most willing to dissect the oppositions every word and most eager to shed blood.



She also should have admitted her mistake about the Iraq vote and that would have been it.



But it doesn’t do much good doing the Monday morning quarterbacking when so much is at stake.



On the Republican side, it looks like Romney despite all of his professed credentials and his willingness to bankroll his campaign despite the poor showings is going to get edged out if we find any credibility in the polls. And these are not going to be small losses if the numbers are correct.



For Romney to lose the State of Massachusetts, which as of today is a real possibility, would practically sink his chances one would think.



Originally, I thought it would be over by February 5; now it may for Romney but I think this is going to turn out a real cliff hanger for Hillary and Obama.



And this could go right to the end.



So whether you are a Millennium generation type or a Boomer or Generation X, hold onto your tights, we are going to be rocked tomorrow in the wildest Primaries we have ever seen.



And imagine, the viewership and the involvement of Europeans and others in what’s going on in our primary is blowing them away.



And maybe it will help erase the perception that all Americans are ugly Americans.



We shall see as this unfolds.



And may the swamp be ready to receive the great Decider when his term is over.



For that one, I swear I’ll get drunk.



Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Growth

Back to Business: "Getting A Dem Elected"



Well, the peace was fine while it lasted.

I felt good and calmed and positive.

Actually, I still feel that way but I know it will be over soon and I am quite ready to reassume my attack mode.

After all, these republican boobs really deserve it.

Of course, when they debate they blame Congress and conveniently forget that they controlled it for most of eight years and even now can muster the votes to block the dems.

Nor do they readily admit that Bush did anything wrong while, at the same time, they try to put as much distance as possible between them.

They are all wishing that the Reagan brand will wear well on the next nominee….

Of course, don’t expect self inspection from a Repug.

None will look at Reagan’s performance and say, “Boy, did he screw up!’ Au contraire, to republicans he is the savior of the Party—the man who ended the Cold War and started the wars between the “haves” and “have-nots!”

What the heck did Reagan do to deserve such accolades?

If you check the records, not much!

So, we’ve got a field of candidates who’s idol bears no relationship to his perceived importance….

And they all want to be like him.

At the last Republican debate, where? At the Reagan library, his name was invoked 42 times….

So whoever is the candidate of the dems, we can expect to be up against McCain who is happily insulated in his Iraq War shrine mouthing incredible distortions that bear no relationship to reality.

Like Giuliani could not separate himself from 9-11, McCain considers himself the progenitor of “The Surge” as compared with a surge, uptick or what was really nothing other than trying to realize a status that virtually every single general thought was required to beat the pesky Iraqis from Day One….


Democrats will be talking about peace, about jobs, the economy, and “hope” and the republicans will be beating themselves to death trying to turn fanciful thinking into fact or hunkering down to the past to avoid the realities of the future.

Either way, they are mostly deluded.

Yet, as the polls tell us, there are situations where the conservatives will vote for McCain—holding their nose—despite the fact that everybody you speak to wants us out of Iraq.

Figure it out. It doesn’t compute.

All of this, of course, will get settled in the days and weeks ahead.

My vacation with “niceness” is over and I’m ready to resume the dirty task of getting a democrat elected.

Isn’t this fun?


Les Aaron
The Committee for Positive Change….

"Hope"

What a mad race it has been.



Originally, I had reason to suspect that the race would be over by Super Tuesday.



Now, I don’t think either race will be over; that they, God forbid, may wind up going back to the Convention for a brokered convention. .



This hasn’t happened in so long, I can’t remember the last time. Maybe the convention in Chicago with Humphrey, I can’t be sure.



I hope it doesn’t turn out like Chicago in 68 however.



To see the penultimate liberal of his time destroyed by young liberals was almost too much to endure knowing that Nixon was waiting in the wings and spreading disharmony and discord wherever he could.



Much as I disliked him, he was still giant strides ahead of Bush when it came to legacies.



And I can’t remember when we had two major Conventions coming up where both candidates were not either the former president or vice president.



This is unique for our time.



What is absolutely incredulous is the fact that the candidates have made me hope again.



Why?



Not only because of their uplifting messages, both of them, but because they are creating a whole new electorate—a signal that perhaps we are capable of breaching the distrust and misunderstanding that have driven us apart for all the wrong reasons—for too many years!.....



….It almost drives me to proclaim it to the world: “ The young are coming out. THE YOUNG ARE COMING OUT!” After years of shunning politics, they are coming back into the fold to contribute their energy, their ideas, their spirit—and it has helped make me whole again to understand that the wonderful ideas that made this country will go on. They will survive after eight years of misuse and being denied.



We will be able to end secrecy and snooping and torture and all of the other things that just serve to drive us apart.



I’m not a religious man but I say thank God for giving us another chance!



Moreover, the candidates have brought out those minorities who have never voted before.



They have won the hopes and aspirations of Independents and even Republicans who have lost faith in their own party are said to be coming over if not in droves, in significant numbers to be noticeable.



What does that mean?



It means that there is a very real possibility that America can come together in our vision, our ideas, our view of the world; that people can learn to understand each other; that we can work together as a unified people to bring what we can the myriad challenges that confront the world. And what we can offer is without limits. Ideas, technology, new ways of solving the green challenges we face, and we can do it with hope and good will.



What we will need is a Marshall Plan for the World.



A great and sustainable effort to build bridges to the world.



That is the way to deal with mistrust of us and the hatreds that have no basis in truth!



With hope, we can bring the world together and solve all of our problems.



It is a very real possibility this time.



I watched the debate and I could feel the energy through the tube.



It actually buoyed me up and I smiled for the first time in eight years.



Before that, I had succumbed to my own feelings that no one was willing to stop the slide into chaos.



But now I know, watching America’s people of all shades and backgrounds and belief systems coming together once again to rebuild our precious little blue planet…



And never before was I ever so happy to admit I had been wrong!





Les Aaron

The Committee for Positive Change