Imagine: Primaries as an Alien Might See Them

Every wonder how “they” might see it?

If you saw “The Day the Earth Stood Still,” you’d know what I was talking about.

Poor Michael Rennie was trying to level with us all along; but we didn’t get it.

Do we get it now?

The question: How would other extraterrestrials think about what we were doing on our planet.

Would it be worth studying? Worth thinking about?

Or would they deem us hopeless and send in the robots to start life over again on this planet?

To assess this, let’s consider just our Primary which was watched intently by most of the world.

To them, a Primary might seem like a good excuse for one “Earthling” to say bad things about another “Earthling.”

To them, they might think it’s odd that gender and color seem to be such a big deal.

Imagine outsiders viewing our Primary.

If they didn’t know any better, they might even believe that these were the defining priorities of our Election:

Something called “Surges” would be right up there at the top of the pecking order.

After all, that’s about all John McCain has to say.

It would seem to strangers, no doubt, that Surges are things you do when you’ve botched everything else up. And a “Surge” can be used to mean anything.

Military decisions? Well, it seems from the face off’s that there are two points of view: One is the importance of winning; the other, how fast can we get out of there.

And if that doesn’t get our “visitors” perplexed, there is always the second topic, of course, something called “fuel” that allows us to go from one place to another.

This is critical because if you can’t go from one place to another cheaply enough, it’s time to blame the democrats. Don’t ask why? That’s just the way it is.

And an entire election could turn on that.

These ‘visitors’ might also be shaking their heads because as anyone can see the policy makers have contributed to making Earth a good place to leave. Our NASA group, it seems, will have no shortage of volunteers to test out Mars—our nearest neighbor.

And our Visitors might have a good laugh over that one….

They would have to be wondering how even an animal, much less people, could befoul their nests as much as we do our environment.

The third topic that would leave them reeling of course is the matter of our “nests” or domiciles. They would undoubtedly have trouble understanding why those who arranged for people to buy these domiciles at unrealistic rates knowing full well that they would lose them, would be shored up the government, while those people taken advantage of by the system are virtually ignored.

It must seem to them that our government supports illegal actions and awards those who are guilty of them.

These and other observations might trouble a “visitor” to our Earth.

They might even begin to wonder how we, the richest country on our planet, treats its needy and its aged, while countries less well insulated seem to show compassion in their concern and care for those less fortunate.

They might also wonder why we persist in our war-mongering attitudes knowing full well that wars bleeds a country of its assets and its resources.

They might also question why we seem so diametrically opposed to discussing our differences with our neighbors and so willing to go to extremes with weaponry to wipe them off the face of the planet.

They might also wonder why the richest of nations exports scrap and imports manufacturing goods to the tune of a 55 billion dollar deficit monthly or why we buy from a store that only sells us products that are made by slave labor or prisoners and may not be clean or healthy when we could build those same products better ourselves.

And before they leave they might ask themselves why if this nation is so great, we have so many diseases that are advertised on our TV’s and why there are different views on Restless Leg Syndrome and four hour erections that only the doctor can address.

And why we accept products where you have to read the small print not to poison yourself.

Such confusion could only cause them to speed up the return leg of their journey.

The Armchair Curmudgeon
Les Aaron

An Ode to John



Dear John McCain

Was it all in vain

Your intentions, that is,
To refrain

From conducting a dirty
Campaign…

Or was it just

More of the same….


Lies you obscure,

Dear John

Make the rest of us

Only mourn

For what might have been

An end to hypocrisy and sin

And a campaign

Where truth can

Win….



Sad to say,

You may come

To rue the day,

That you shied away

From what you did say….



For you sure can’t win

And you can’t go Heaven

If you depend

On the nasty words

Of a “527”

That you claim

Not to indorse,

Of course…..


Making you sound

A good deal more

Like the proverbial

Media Whore…


Some may say Repent!

But I imagine the Devil

Prefers the new John McCain

And your evil intent.

Pyrric Victory: The Environment



When this administration is judged, we will all play witness to the fact that it has waged ceaseless war against mankind with its self serving policies and practices; it is a battle that we have virtually lost collectively and it will be one that is already coming back to haunt us.



The subject is the environment and the “talking heads,” the media heavyweights and the ‘think tanks’ who exist to promulgate special interests and pay no taxes for the privilege will have won their Pyrric victory--a short term victory at the expense of our futures.



If we need any proof of that, all we need do is see the confusion and the doubts that persist whenever anyone brings up the subject of the environment.



As a result, the government has been able to put off clean air/clean water considerations; it has defanged OSHA, and it has given eight year’s of passes to Detroit. It has ignored transportation entirely while promulgating endless consumption and self-interest.

It has failed to adopt a policy of Global stewardship despite the fact that we are one of the leading polluter in the world. If anything, this government had demonstrated an affinity for supporting the status quo at the expense of the people, their health and the health of the planet.



From the very beginning, they have thrown a monkey wrench into the Kyoto Accords. They have enlisted scientists on the payroll to broadside their doubts about Global Warming and they have done little or nothing to take positive action to protect the environment. They have failed to get behind sequestration, they have encouraged the burning of coal who’s effluents include heavy metals and carbon that heats the oceans and dirties the air that we breath. Nor have they thrown their weight behind a policy to promote clean-burning fuels or develop smart alternatives.



As a result, America’s efforts lag the world. Instead of now javing to join the battle at this late date with diminished resources, we might have been able to reverse what now seems assured: the melting of the Greenland Cap and parts of South West Antarctica relating to the Ross Shelf along with the melting of glaciers in South Asia that provide much of the drinking water to that part of the world. At present, unless Draconian measures are adopted immediately, and quite frankly that is an unlikely outcome, my own state, according to projections from the Marine division of the local college, indicate that we will be under water in less than one hundred years. And those projections are conservative!



During the next generation, if we don’t seize the initiative, we can only expect increasing draught, the emergence of new invasive species, destructive patterns of rain and storms that will make Katrina look commonplace, rising coastal tides, loss of flora and fauna, the loss of species and rising temperatures.



There is also data that suggests that a continuation of our policy could also lead to “Snowball Earth” a series of events that might take place according to the best estimates if the underwater rivers that circle the globe—and bring moderate temperatures to most of the Earth—fail and shut down.



Such a development could make Earth mainly uninhabitable for tens of thousands of years. To prevent such a tragedy, we as a people must mobilize our resources and act where our government has failed.



To paraphrase Vice President Al Gore’s words, it is better to be wrong about our assumptions than risk imperiling the earth through inaction.



Les Aaron

The Hubmaster

Hillary for Governor?


I wonder what her true motives are: Is it to elect a democrat or to start planning her own next moves?

Almost a conundrum for the Ages?

The trouble is that Hillary's influence is still significant among many women who feel that they have cheated.

However, when it comes to party politics,
Even from the point of self-interest, it would be wise to back Obama.

He is the Party's candidate and if she doesn't throw her full weight behind him, she stands the risk of being construed as not only a "sore loser" but as someone who has an interest in splitting the party.

There is little advantage in that especially while she is young enough to entertain the idea of another office.

I suspect that if Obama doesn't reward her with something suitable to her own sense of self worth, she will go for the top job in New York State.

If that's the case, it will constitute the contest that New Yorkers were deprived of when Giuliani decided not to run against her.

However, the rumors are already flying that Giuliani will be running for Governor of New York.

He is a dyed in the wool New Yorker, even though many of the voters don't like him for the way he ran the Mayor's position and took all the credit for everything.

I think Hilllary would do well against him.

She is one of the few democrats who managed to do well upstate and down, which is a political impossibility in New York where upstate is like a different world from Westchester, Manhattan, the Boroughs and Long Island.

Most upstaters are conservative republicans and don't like "Flatlanders."

In any event it would be an interesting contest.

And no question about it, Bill would be there to lend his support which is considerable.


I personally think that that's the way it will go.


That is, unless Hillary throws her full weight to support Obama.

She hasn't done anything that I've noted to help him since she was introduced and mollified by the Obama forces.

Personally, I think she is still doing a slow broil.

There are still almost one hundred days left.

And she can make a big difference among those who voted for her.

But personally I think there are many republicans who would just love to see her get the vice presidential nod.

But I can't see it happening given her "high negatives" and the position of the Hillary folk before and during the second half of the Primary.



Les Aaron

Counting your Chickens….

Is Obama assuming a little too much at this stage of the game?

One might think so based upon his recent statements and a couple of presumptuous moves that have left heads shaking.

Some have even suggested that Obama’s over-reaching may be just the wrong strategy at this juncture.

Being presumptuous has its place but not when you are just points apart from your adversary. Some consider it even a display of unwarranted chutzpah at this stage.

To many, it seems as if Obama has moved from a successful trip to Europe—where he appeared like a president “in waiting”—to meetings yesterday and today with leaders in the present government. A move that many think was a little over the top. Instead of courting the voters, for example, he chose to spend his time with Bush advisors and others in government.

The fact is that he is not the president yet and too look overly confident may just send out the wrong vibes to a voting base that has not made up its mind about the candidate.

To make matters worse, he has even stated in remarks that the election “looks good.”

Of course, most of this confidence is premature and Obama should remember that meetings with Angela Merkle, the president of Germany, and Nicholas Sarkozy, the president of France, does not a presidency make.

True, he was treated as a potential president.

And, yes , his speeches were strong and reminded us of a former president’s visit more than forty years ago, but that visit was by a president; not a candidate.

To stir the pot a little more, in discussing his performance, some of my own friends criticized Obama for being too good an Orator which caused me to get my Irish up.

What do you mean?, I asked defensively.

They explained: Orators don’t win elections!

They cited Kerry and Gore….

And that gave me pause.

I think what they were really saying was that both of these candidates seemed to be above the fray, perhaps too intellectual and not the kind of guy you might feel comfortable kidding around with at the local pub.

And I see that as a real danger with Obama.

He is not that guy.

Yes, he smiles a lot and he pats a lot of backs, but does he pass the kind of personal litmus test that most people seek and want in a president?

The answer to that question is not clear.

But what can be a turn-off is the fact that he already seems to have inherited the mantle of president without the approbation of the public.


In the end, it is after all, the voter who makes that distinction by casting his or her vote.

And too much confidence too early in the game can keep people home on Election Day.

Just a thought or two but perhaps Obama needs to surround himself more with real people who have their fingers on the pulse of what the voter is really seeking in a candidate….and get out there like the candidates of old and press the flesh.

It wouldn’t be beneath him.


Les Aaron

Out, out damned Spot!

This was the report on John McCain.

He has had skin cancer before and he’s being on the safe side.

Hmmm!

This may not be anything to fool around with….

Skin cancers can be some of the most deadly forms of cancer and he shouldn’t make light of it.

I had a case of it years ago and we caught it early, I guess.

Because I’m still around.

It’s a bit embarrassing after going through Korea that I could be brought down by something so small you can’t see it.

I empathize.

So, good for you, John.

Now, with that cancer gone, maybe you can get back to thinking like a normal person and forget all that crap you’ve been dishing out.

And become a rational candidate.

I mean up to now, John, I have to admit that you’ve been scaring the Hell out of me….especially after saying that you were going to run a decent campaign without the negativity.

But John you went back on your word.

Your latest foray into the “nasties” was on exhibit for all to see yesterday.

And it makes you look like a mean-spirited little man who has trouble with the truth.

So with “spot” gone, we hope you will turn over a new leaf.


And rejoin the human race.

What do you say, buddy?


Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

Historical Signposts:

As I grow older, I realize more and more how much what happens today is influenced by the past. It seems that things have a cycle of their own. As of now, it seems that what happened in twenty year increments seem to provide kind of a yardstick—and in many ways—a perspective for today. It goes without saying that we as Americans, unlike the Asians who tend to think in perhaps 100 year increments, are inclined to think more in terms of day to day when they should be looking at things longer term.

Such thoughts impel me now to think of those early days of the Cold War when General Curtis LeMay headed up SAC, which was the Strategic Air Command. At the time, there were always a number of bombers in the air ready to take out the Soviet Union. Blunt, but true.

You may have seen Dr. Strangelove which was the tongue in cheek version of a movie that depicted what could happen if both our countries got our signals crossed and moved forwards towards confrontation..

Fortunately, wiser men prevailed in those days.

And when SAC transformed itself into what was to become NORAD to which I volunteered, I had often wondered what would happen if a foolish, shallow person addicted to limited thought and macho to a fault would have assumed office.

That was more than fifty years ago.

Now, we know. And make of it what you will, it does give us reason to pause.

In those early days, we have something called the “football,” the red phone that an aide carried everywhere.

In only a matter of minutes, waiting Russian ICBMS could be targeted at a diversity of US Cities.

I thought about this as I tracked Khrushchev’s plane from our engagement point, mid Atlantic, until the time it arrived in New York where he was attend a session of the UN.

Khrushchev was no fool; neither were any of the presidents from Eisenhower thru Bush I.

Nobody wanted to start a nuclear war and have that on their conscience.

But there were incidences.

On one chill morning in the mid-1980’s, a radar observer noticed aberrations on the radar.

It seemed to indicate that American missiles had been launched.

The generals wanted to go to duty stations and launch their own missiles in order to survive. And they had only fifteen minutes to make the decision.

Fortunately, a cool colonel of the Russian Air Force was in charge and he urged caution and argued effectively against making a pre-emptive strike.

As it turned out, it was a false alarm, geese flying through the radar net.

Such a miscalculation could have surely brought around Armageddon if the Russians didn’t have such a cool and rational man at the helm.

Today, he lives an obscure life in an obscure hamlet.

And so it went.

Again, I wondered what would happen if cooler heads did not prevail.

And that we voted into office a hip-shooter; someone who liked to play the fast-draw.

Well, we’ve gotten to find out.

One of the first thing Bush did in taking office was to end SALT, an agreement that had lasted 37 years and kept us at peace.

Next, our cowboy president talked about preemption, going to War on the suspicion that our adversary was planning to strike.

No proof; no nothing.

Fortunately, the Russians were not headed by an adventurer; nor, at the time, were they so predisposed to challenge the US.

But times change, today Russia has resumed its role as counter-balance to adventurism and the world is much more complicated than it ever was back in the fifties.

In the early days of the Bush chutzpah, he had no hesitation in calling North Korea, Iran and Iraq “Evil Empires” which nearly destroyed the democracy that South Korea had built over so many years.

Nor did it help America smooth over relations with Iran with its large moderate population. Again, we seem to forget was that it was we who armed the Iraqis to fight Iranians and it was we who in the fifties disposed their premier because he wanted to nationalize his own oil industry.

The Persians, a culture that goes back some five thousand years and proved to be culturally advanced then, did not forget our interference into affairs of State and our pushing the Shah and his dreaded secret police, Savak, on them.

Yet, we blunder forward without so much as a thought to historical imperatives or the actions of the past.

If we had, we never would have made so many mistakes in Iraq. And we might have come out without our tail between our legs.

In all of this, the blame should never be cast on the troops. Their efforts have always been exemplary; however, as in Vietnam and other unnecessary adventures, it is the government that calls the shots.

In this case, it was pure egomania combined with cultural ineptitude combined with arrogance that has cooked our goose and we are still too preoccupied with all the wrong things to see it.

As we approach an election, but before we can take a deep breath, it has become increasingly clear, that we need to clean house; that we have to remove the brain-dead, the egoists, the blind, the self-aggrandizing and the meek before we can turn things around.

If there were no other purpose to education than just knowing how to conduct our affairs and to protect the people, that would be sufficient to justify PhD’s for all.

And though some might laugh at such a magnanimous gesture, perhaps if we had done so, we would not have spent nearly one trillion dollars to promulgate a War that seems to have no end and no definition of “victory.”

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

When Worlds End

It sounds like the same thing that Monica did for Justice, the government did when it decided to populate the Green Zone in Iraq.

Instead of having all of the promised specialists to restore order and services in Iraq's major cities, they populated the Green Zone with young incompetents who were adjudged to have voted "right" and to have paid appropriate homage to their master, the Bushmeister....

It is sad and embarrassing to see our government so incompetently managed and it is worse when the idea that lives are being held captive by political decisions that have no place in governing a country.

So one wonders why we were to expect a different outcome in Iraq when we couldn't even mobilize properly to handle a hurricane in one of our oldest and most well loved cities.

When our own government puts unqualified people into responsible positions, it says more than we need to know about the contempt our leadership has for doing the right thing. That by itself seems to be a violation of one's oath of office.

Instead of doing what is right, our government is more concerned about achieving its lopsided agenda that benefits the few, the rich, those who donate over those who need help, the poor, the uneducated, the infirm.

In some ways, it seems to me that there is just degrees difference with a totalitarian system that takes, takes and takes.

We have fallen a long way and we have learned some things perhaps we didn't want to know.

Among them, our government doesn't care one whit for us.

Our Supreme Court is political.

Our Media is compliant and subservient.

Our Congress is weak, weak, weak and an embarrassment

Our protective agencies do not protect

Our Military is only valued when it serves and forever after neglected by those who should know better

Most of the government is incompetent and does not know what it is doing...

That our leaders are only concerned with filling their larders....

And they don't care if the storms and the rising tides destroy what is best about our country....

They don't care if the flora and fauna die....

They don't care if species end....

Or the air and water kills us......

Even a totalitarian system might not go that far.....

But the lesson to them is simple: We don't care enough to do something about it.

And that's the rub.


Les Aaron

Picking through the Detritus….

There’s a lot of stuff going on….and much of it doesn’t add up to a hill of beans. But there are things that seem to be generally overlooked by the public at large.
Among the most disturbing developments, there is growing evidence that Congress is not going to find the gumption that it needs before it goes down as one of the least effective Congresses ever—despite what Nancy says.

My main complaint is against her considering Impeachment for the most impeachable president ever.

Her reasons do not resonate with me; nor should they with you.

Because it gives Bush a pass and allows him Congress’ blessing for violating the Constitution.

Do we need to repeat that?

What is about that message that Nancy and Mr. Reed do not understand?

Do they not realize that this is just another nail in the coffin of democracy?

What is wrong with this picture?

Now, they are investigating the failures of the Justice Department to follow the law and the Constitution.

Somewhere along the way, Gonzalez, the Attorney General (Ex.), did not understand that his loyalty is to the law not the president.

And while everyone in the White House serves at the pleasure of the president that does not mean that all are to cater to him over the law.

Today, two high level people in the Justice Department were identified as using extreme political bias to choose lawyers to serve in that department.

Attorney General Gonzalez claimed again that he didn’t know anything about it….as he had said in confused testimony again and again.

Clearly, Attorney General didn’t know much about anything—especially what his obligations were under the law.

Wouldn’t the president be embarrassed to allow this charade to continue.

Add to this the latest testimony re the FISA courts and the free pass he has received for getting the telecommunications to break the law.

We are on a downside spiral in virtually everything these days, but it is clear to any observer that what has suffered most is respect for the law.

When the whole country collapses from Inertia, will Bush claim Executive Privilege.

That would be a fitting dénouement for a government unable to govern and a White House oblivious of the law.

Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon

La Vida Es Sueno

Some times it’s like that…

Life is like a dream according to Pedro Calderon de la Barca’s allegory on life.. .

It is a dream inspired by what we like; not necessarily reality.

Don’t believe it?

All you have to do is bring up a topic that is unpleasant to hear a resounding “I don’t want to talk about that!” or something equivalent.

The fact is that the recipient of the communication has already turned off his or her brain.

The truth is that we are remarkably adept at such contrivances.

The brand people say that we can only accept so many impressions. Our minds can only acknowledge a few brands in each category so if you’re not in the top seven in people’s recall, don’t bother to search for funding or expect great leaps forward on the Big Board.

It just won’t happen.

The prophet of TV had it right: The medium is the message. But what he didn’t say but implied was that the Message is taking over.

And why not.

It tells us what we want to here. It doesn’t fill our heads with painful facts.

And that is both the blessing and the curse of our society.

Why is it a curse?

Because the powers that be know that anybody who is addicted to TV is a great subject for their own brand of persuasion that may or may not include the truth.

Someone said to me that the Revolution is coming.

I said I doubt it.

Why? Too often, I find the residue of the Cargo culture.

These are the inhabitants of Western New Guinea who sit on rocks and wait for the “great birds” to come to deliver nice things like food and clothes.

And some are still waiting for America’s return.

That was more than fifty years ago.

We, too, in our own way are waiting to for a savior to come along.

To bring back all of the things important to our conception of democracy.

But there are few figures great enough to fill the bill.

No Adams or Washingtons along the way.

Yet, we wait for the deux ex machinas to come along and save us from ourselves in the Third Act.

But low and behold, it never happens..

Why?

It seems that the passivity required for TV watching is directly proportional to the apathy we find in everything else.

Why bother to read; it is too much work—especially when you can passively watch a made for TV movie without exercising a mental muscle.

Why bother to listen to a heroic piece of classical music. It takes too much effort.

Why bother to research the truth; it requires too much sweat and hard work.

The fact is that largely we have become apathetic because it just takes too much work to get involved, too much patterning of the frontal lobes one would suspect..


Therefore, no Washingtons.

No Revolution.

No nothing.

Just more programming to keep us in our somnambulant state.

So the arbiters of what is right and wrong go about spinning their cynical webs and we all suffer from inertia.

Imagine.

Two hundred years ago who would have thought?

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon.

The Obama Outlook:


Claudette, I think your question is very apt right now, so if you don’t mind, I am going to broadside what I am finding out there in the world of the wealthy, the red-necks, the partisans in this fight and the “undecideds” –the real minorities, the ethnic “haves” and “have-nots” who are legitimately undecided for the reasons I will get into shortly.
Since you asked, here is what this old curmudgeon finds and hears from his vantage point and in his travels.

So, strap yourself in.

First off, I do see racism as an underrated threat that is evident from the little clues and the innuendos that I am privy to and am receiving from those who I have been close to which does, in a way, both surprise and trouble me.

I had hoped and prayed that we had moved beyond the race riots, the fires in Newark, the stuff that I had seen during my service days. In those days, my bunkmates were black and they had their friends over at night and I like everyone else listened and enjoyed the music. But there was always that undercurrent that never went away.

And although we had come a long way, there was that cross-current in the air.

I sensed it back when I was covering South Carolina and the rest of the deep south. I sensed it when I sat with my customers and they were reminiscing about those good old days during the Civil War….

But, now, there is something else in the air.

People who claim to be fair-minded and progressive are not.

I don’t want to feed the flames of what we saw in the primaries but many folk who we suspect of being progressive in their views, I am finding to be coy or dishonest.

It’s the little things that are starting to add up.

In short, people don’t trust anything they are not familiar with.

And they are not familiar with a child who is neither black or white, a child of the world.

And I find it disturbing but it is almost the language of the herd.

If you are from outside, you are not adopted by the herd; you are left to fend for yourself or die. And I see much of that here..

But I also think that this is an issue that is divide by education and age.

The younger, more educated among us are falling on Obama’s side or so it seems.

There are still “idealists” among us but perhaps more than idealism, per se, the modus operandi seems to build around the idea that one, we either cannot survive any longer as a country unless we change or ways; or, two, the time is right for change in every way possible. The old have botched things so badly, that the young have to come in and set it right. The symbol of the young is Obama.

And I concur.

But that does not mean that McCain will just go away.

And as we’ve seen, no matter how outlandish the opposition, they still always score at 49% of the population plus which gives the lie to the polls that never seem to tap into the real truth because the public will never admit it.

To the young and the educated, McCain is just another old man who thinks the wrong way.

I believe the educated, too, sense that Obama is the vehicle for bringing about change; someone who with a wave of his own personal magic will transform the world before us.
He is the deux ex machine who comes in to save the world in Act III.

But there are concerns.

I was talking about such things to two young black men from the Geek Squad who came in to install some Best Buy equipment I indulged in.

We spent most of the day talking politics.

These young men were eye opening in their intelligence and candor. They had seen it all unlike most of us. They grew up in places that I knew to be “pits.” Yet, they had escaped its pull, moved to green Delaware for new lives and pulled it off. They pulled it off because they were bright and wanted more out of life.

Yet, it was clear to me that they didn’t see Obama as one of them. To me, it seemed that though they didn’t say it outright, for them, Obama was an elitest. He didn’t know what they knew; he didn’t have to fight their battles.

My guess is that they probably won’t vote and that is sad.

But their feelings run deep and for them, Obama is really nothing but a white man.

It seems an odd point of view; nonetheless, there are other incongruities in this election that have been barely discussed or scrutinized.

Obama is really in an impossible role.

A close friend of mine said he is worried about Obama although he is supporting him and believes that we are desparate for change. He is 83 and much my senior, but his mind is very adept. He said that the problem is that Obama fits into the role of a Kerry or a Gore. He is an orator. But as evidence shows, orators don’t win elections. They are too often perceived as above the fray, elitists who don’t relate to the average person.

And there is something right in what he says.

For my own tastes, I would have preferred a street fighter, somebody I could relate to, perhaps a Jackson for these times.

But truth to tell, Obama doesn’t come off that way.

Ah, he is bright; oh so bright that I have probably never heard a more gifted candidate.

But he also seems to be above the rest of us, mere mortals, and knows it.

Nor does his wife, despite her attempts, seem to get down and dirty and comforting.

Part of the problem is that nobody has ever seen anyone like him.

Moreover, nobody can really understand the complexity or the diversity of experience and backgrounds that this unique individual draws from.

He is truly representative of almost a new species of being as crazed as that may sound.

And the rest of us are not sure how to identify.

The trouble is that he has trouble playing the common man; he is not of that ilk.

And theirin, like a Shakespearean protagonist, may be the seeds of his karma.

He is not everyman; he is “special man” and he makes no bones about it.

But the rest of us don’t know him and there are fewer than a hundred days left.

John McCain, however, is comfortable like a squeaky old shoe, like a grand-dad who says dumb things but people can overlook that because they think they understand him—whether that’s really true or not.

I think that McCain is not as nice as he’d like us to believe.

But he has the background that we like.

So, therefore, is kind of Taoist challenge that we face.

Do we buy into something many of us feel comfortable with; a war hero who has been around a long time and seems to be the kind you might feel comfortable with or do you buy into something you don’t really know and don’t feel comfortable with.

I think it will ultimately boil down to the numbers—even if Obama says nothing wrong!

And that will be whether the educated and the young and the black progressives and the desire for fundamental change can overcompensate for those traditionalists who prefer something they know over something they don’t.

Elections have been decided for lesser reasons.

Meanwhile, McCain will still harp on familiar themes, whether he gets them right or wrong; and Obama will soar with his rhetoric but not interest us enough to want to go out and have a beer with him.

In the end, few things change and this by no means is going to be a slam dunk—no matter what the experts say.

And those of us in the party who think so are simply missing the point.

Les Aaron, the Armchair Curmudgeon…..

Poor John.



He has been acting more and more like a dodo bird.



You would think he would have learned by now.



But oh no, if nothing else, McCain is stuck in the groove of a lack of imagination rubbing against self-interest. In the end of course, the story is more of the same.



Self-interest rules. And if necessary, the past will be reinvented to fall into line.



And so we find ourselves back at square one amongst those who look upon John as the Chosen One….



But there is a consistent flaw in the stolid face that Original John tries to present to the world and that flaw seems to become engorged every time John opens his mouth.



You see, in case you haven’t noticed, the Senator seems to have one phrase in his vocabulary and when you build your campaign on one phrase, you’d better have it right.



But even that is beyond John’s abilities to render.



Some say, John’s slips are due to his age…..and some say it is because John is no different than most in his party who think nothing of transposing the facts to help solidify his position.



Either way, he is reinventing the past.



That past has to do with something called “The Surge.”.



And if we’ve heard it once, we’ve heard it a thousand times. In fact, it supersedes everything else in John’s inventory from the economy to health care; from jobs to the loss of home mortgages….



It is the defining terminology if one were to describe what McCain is all about.



Therefore, it is only fair that someone address it as, it turns out, Keith Olbermann is doing with great pleasure. Keith is expert in probing his vulnerabilities with red hot pokers and then twisting them for all to see.



Meanwhile, John doesn’t seem to be bothered as he proceeds to reinterpret history virtually every time he tries to explain it. .



Now, SURGE has become a composite term that refers to what happened before the real SURGE, before that was authorized by Bush which was, in effect, no more than the generals wanted in the first place, more boots on the ground.



And then under Bush, the phrase took on a new meaning, the Surge now—according to the beneficent leader-- was to provide the time that the government of Iraq needed in order to get its house in order as a precondition for our troops leaving the country. (Of course, at the time, we didn’t realize that our tax dollars were being used to build sixty permanent bases all over Iraq.)



But McCain’s definition conveniently leaves that out…as he does everything that happened before. He never questions the need to have gone into Iraq; he never questions why we didn’t mount an aggressive effort to get bin Laden, and he seems to go along with Bush’s ability to not only dispense with all of the motives for going into Iraq in the first place—from WMD to “yellowcake,” the UN charade, the fact that he had already made up his mind to dispose of Saddam before going into Afghanistan, our initial failures at keeping the peace, our obvious attempts to protect the oil as opposed to the people, or the banks, or the Nation’s antiquities and on and on.



It all revolves about “the Surge.”



In his flexible interpretation, the Surge is what happened before the actual SURGE took place. And he mentions it over and over again. In his own mind, he has attempted to incorporate the Surge into all that happened that had heretofore been referred to as the Anbar “Awakening” when the sheiks realized that they wanted to end the bloodshed and end the attacks on the Sunni by Al Qaeda and other dissidents. The Shieks had claimed that they had seen enough and were willing to cooperate with local commanders. . .



McCain points to his interview with the general in charge of Remaldi at that time and suggests that the SURGE really refers to that time; but that was long before Bush’s decision to send troops to Remaldi or Anbar.



It was not until January 2007 that Bush announced the decision to move thousands of more troops into Iraq. And the first troops did not begin to arrive until March 2007; meanwhile



In March 2007, before the first of the new troops began to arrive, Colonel John Charlton, the commander responsible for Remaldi, a city in Anbar Province, reported that thousands of new Sunni police on the ground in concert with friendly Sunni Sheiks had already cut the rate of crime in half.



McCain is quick to include that result in what happened after Bush’s Surge took place.



On another note, McCain’s raving about the concept of SURGE omits the fact that it was initiated for a single purpose and that was to allow the government to organize in order to allow the American troops to leave Iraq.



It has also been a proven way to positively skip over all that had gone wrong in Iraq and give it a happy if inaccurate spin. It is simply wrong to use the SURGE as a synonym for the Iraq experience, a way for the government to stop talking about their failures over more than five years---from inadequate planning to an inability to govern the country.



Most sensible people will not be so taken in and will recognize that John McCain is trying to write a history that is too fresh in most of our minds to be so manipulated.



If this is all McCain can bring to the table—a kind of “blindness” to real events—it will have even loyal Republicans shaking their heads in wonderment. Nonetheless, as we have seen before, by repeating the same inaccuracies over and over again, John McCain will benefit from his own re-invention of the facts. We have seen that before and we shall see that again.



On the other hand, John McCain might do well to consider the polls that show that 80% of the population already believe that when it comes to the leadership in this country, we are going in the wrong direction.



Hint! Hint!



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon

On Streisand

For the short time I spent Stateside, I was stationed at Fort Wadsworth, an old fort that was said to have gone back to revolutionary days. On the days when I wasn't tied up with assignments, I would file down to New York City via bus and ferry (before the Verazzano was built), and line up for free tickets at the USO.

One of the first shows I saw was "I can get it for you wholesale," in which my next store neighbor played the key female role until somebody I had never seen before took on the role of secretary in the musical and proceeded to steel the show.

That somebody was Barbra Streisand in her first stint on Broadway.

Before the Show, she had opened for a folk singer I knew, Sylvia, at a local club.

Okay, flash to 1999, it had been more forty years since that day.

I had went on to serve my career, raise a family and then take on odd jobs after losing my job when my boss, the owner of the company, sold off my division after promising a life time of work.

I was standing on line among seventeen stalwarts for Al Gore.

That was our biggest turn-out then after weeks of trying to drum up enthusiasm for Al.

It was in the Spring and pre-Convention.

Then the Hollywood producing brothers came out....
and the Unions and even the junior Senator from New York.

Harvey Weinstein read a message from Barbra Streisand that ignited us all.

With Harvey, came the music and the sound systems.

And before we knew it, we had filled Broadway from 42nd Street to 38th Street on Seventh Avenue.

No longer could Rudy Giuliani's minions hind us behind yellow stanchions.

We had jelled into a movement.

I will never forget those days of feeling really alone as if no one cared and then like a flash of lightening, it all changed.

The Democrats had come together.

We had all been saved.

Something to think about as we enter a new election.

And must remember not to take victory for granted.

Les Aaron

Think Positive


Under the rubric of keeping an open mind, I’ve discovered that there is always hope.

And those of you with a historical perspective will appreciate this little story.

Some may recall me saying that I got to know three of those in Nixon’s inner circle.

One of those was a classmate, a young man from a blue collar republican family who despite being committed to conservative causes, was a decent, hard-working and fair person with exceptional abilities and intelligence whom I had known since the early days of school.

Dick was chosen by Nixon to be first a strategist and a speechwriter, and then appointed to be his first press spokesperson.

Dick lasted less than a week in that spot and then opted out of his own accord.

The big question was “why?”

It turned out to be no surprise. He couldn’t stand those who surrounded Nixon and didn’t mind saying it including Erlichman, Haldemann and the whole motley crew of Nixon’s “Nazis.”

And when Nixon chose Agnew, Dick Whelan left the Administration and decided to write a book called “Catch a Falling Flag.”

He was the first of the loyalists to break with the pack.

Dick Whelan had already achieved a modicum of fame with the Founding Fathers, the authoritative and best seller about the Kennedys. Later, he became a consultant to the republican party and then a senior editor at Fortune.

This legendary advisor to the republican party announced last month that after fifty five years of being a stalwart of conservative republicanism, he has decided to switch parties.

His reason?
The republicans have veered from their original party platform and that he has been very disappointed in the Bush presidency of the last eight years.

This shows that there is still hope that the rest of the republican party will still find its soul and return to its fundamental philosophies that have been abandoned in the last eight years.

Although Dick and I virtually never agreed philosophically, I always did respect him for who he was, his integrity and his honesty.

And now I am especially proud that he has found his core. And while the party has changed, Dick remains the point man on honesty and integrity and that with his grit and good sense, he will remain a beacon for others who recognize that the Grand Old Party has lost its way.

Les Aaron

Another look at oil

It seems to me that the big Oil Companies are thinking very short term.

And they are not the only ones…..

Think about the big mid-eastern producers, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Iran and Russia.

They are keeping the prices high.

Artificially so.

Kuwait and Saudi Arabia seem to forget who bailed them out.

But that’s okay. We remember.

What will they do they do when Americans can no longer afford to buy their oil.

And start taking their electric cars to work….

Or start using public transportation.

You know, at one time when people moved from oil light for their lanterns and home lighting, the oil industry didn’t know what to do. That was a hundred years ago.
It could happen again!.....

But the oil industry got lucky.

They were bailed out by the automotive industry.

What happens to the oil industry if everyone uses electric cars?

Have they thought about that?

Saudi Arabia has a fortune invested in the West.

What happens to their investment when we have to borrow more and the value of the American dollar goes down?

What happens to the big American oil companies? The processors?

Not that I care.

They’ve had their opportunity and they showed themselves to be greedy pigs.

Now, T Boone Pickens is moving to renewable energy.

And the smarter money is moving to alternatives.

GE has sold its major investment in plastics and packaging in order to increase its investment in renewables. So have other European giants who see the future apparently with greater clarity than our own government.

In the next ten years, I expect you won’’t see an SUV, a Hummer or an unnecessary truck on the road. They will become the dinosaurs when oil was affordable.

In the next twenty years, perhaps fifty percent of the fuel will come from grass plants and sugar cane.

In the next twenty years, new hybrids may make up half the marketplace.

And what will happen to Saudi Arabia and Iran once the oil goes?

And who will care?

That is if we get smart.

And do the right thing.


Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon

It’s time to get rid of the “Nay-Sayers!”


Have you ever noticed?

The world is full of people who will tell you what you can’t do.

They tell you: “You are no good at this….”

“You are not capable of doing that….”

“You will never be as good as me…..”

And on and on….

The insults and disparaging remarks are endless.

That kind of negativity come in all shapes and sizes and I call them “put downs” and they come from those who only know one thing how to discourage enthusiasm, and eat away at hope.

They are the people who discourage you because they don’t want you besting them.

They are the people who prefer the status quo.

They don’t want to see anyone get ahead.

And they don’t want anyone to get wise to them….

And their little scams that allow them to get away with doing nothing….

And they are endemic; you find them everywhere.

I literally despise such people.

I hate people that feel sorry for themselves.

Who blame the world for not being good to them.

Who feel a sense of entitlement.

I have known them all my life.

I grew up with them, in fact.

Their modus operandi is that they don’t want to see you get ahead—especially ahead of them!

They love to take the credit for everything….

And to my mind, they diminish life.

They are always the “negativists.”

They only see what can’t be done.


And what you can’t do.

And they’ve probably been around since the beginning of time.

They are the ones who laughed at Noah!....

Who thought that leaving Africa would be a waste of time….

Who said to others, “Why build a shelter, it will never stand up to the elements.”

We all know who I am referring to.

What if Christopher Columbus listened to the nay-sayers?

What if Thomas Edison was told: “Why try all those filaments; it will never work anyway?”

What if somebody said, “Why bother, Mr. Pasteur: What’s the big deal anyway about homogenizing milk?”.

And that kind of myopia and narrowness of view has not gone away. In fact, only a few years ago, somebody said that there was an end to history….Nothing else new could happen under the sun…..

Another person at the end of the nineteenth century said that every invention that was going to be invented was already invented.

The point is that you can’t listen to anyone when it comes to charting your course.

Only you decide.

And that’s how it should be.

When people tell me “it can’t be done,” I enjoy proving them wrong.

We Internet people should know about such things.

Back in the sixties, the big Communications companies laughed at the
“black box” makers saying these things will never work!

IBM said why bother with these kids toys, the pc, the future is in the big IBM mainframes….

And you wonder how people can be so wrong….

Here’s my little motto: Most people are mostly wrong most of the time.

And whoever says there isn’t room for innovation is simply an obstacle and should be fired.

If they worked for me and thought that way, they would be gone in twenty four hours.

I like a “can-do” atmosphere.

I don’t want to hear it can’t be done because, mostly, it can.

If you have the moxie to do it.

And it’s that kind of spirit we have to find again.

The spirit that we can do anything.

I think it will come back if we can wrestle power away from the negativists and those who tell us it isn’t worth doing.

There’s plenty of us out there; all we have to do is find our courage once again.


Les Aaron

"There’s no place like America.".



That one expression seems to codify the popular myth.





Maybe that was true once, but I am not so sure about that today.



In light of the last eight years, America has been transformed.



We don’t have to go much further than what we see with our own eyes….



The housing industry has been crippled; it was the only leg that the economy was standing on and the government ignored its role and its impact on the rest of the economy.



The mortgage market is a disaster. Another million homes went up for foreclosure.

This will not only destroy the home-owner but ruin communities all over America.



More and more what you see are Foreclosure signs up or For Sale signs; this is not a healthy sign for the economy.



More and more, America no longer makes things…..



There is no American TV maker anymore. Zenith, RCA and Magnavox are now owned by Asian companies…..so is the IBM key pad pc.



Our jobs move over the borders.



And to respond, we buy from Wal-Mart which has forced more and more American companies to fold or move, taking their jobs with them.



And still we buy from Wal-Mart reinforcing their message: Buy in China; Sell in America.



They are America’s largest retailer, accounting for more than $400 billion in annual sales.



If you added all of the value of all of the retailers in America, they would not add up to 400 billion dollars.



And Wal-Mart’s purchasing policies have literally forced all of our suppliers overseas, mostly to China.



We import 65 billion dollars more from China than we export.



The Chinese hold nearly one trillion dollars of our debt.



China, Japan, Saudi Arabia and England own America today.



That’s how we are financing a one trillion dollar war; make no mistake about that!



I benefitted from the programs of FDR and the GI Bill.



Although the democrats finally reintroduced the GI Bill, there is nothing left of FDR programs to put America back to work.



The jobs that are available are usually service-oriented and part time. And to the pundits who are trying to tell us they are just as good as manufacturing jobs, be assured that they are lying. Service jobs do not have a multiplier effect on the economy as manufacturing did where one dollar turned into six dollars.



Service sector jobs don’t begin to replace manufacturing jobs despite what they say in the Greening of America.



Those top level “white collar” jobs we were supposed to be heir to have also disappeared to places like India where the workers will strive for one-quarter domestic wages.



Many of us have trained our own replacements because we were “over qualified”==read earning too much—only to have our jobs acquired by special Green Card holders.



To reassert our leadership, we need to have the best education in the world; but the only one’s who do have that kind of access are the one’s who can afford twenty five to thirty thousand dollar a year tuitions.



There is no equal education any more.



The Republicans want to privatize it and the Federal government has focused on No Child Left Behind because of Bush, which only teaches children how to prepare for a known test. It teaches nothing about learning.



To be a top rated Western country, we should have a health care system that we can be proud of; yet, we don’t. We don’t even have a middling health care system. Most of the world’s healthcare systems do not put the burden on the people; ours does.



And most people cannot afford to have a catastrophic illness.



The fact is that in America today, 40 million people do not have access to decent health care.



Worse yet, although we account for 5% of the population, we account for 20% of the pollution. What does that augur for our well being and health in the future?



It signals that we have not seen the half of it.



Our advisors tell us not to drink tap water; we are told not to consume fish more than once a week. Our FDA does not inspect our food. People die because cattle are not inspected. Produce and fruit comes into this country untested. Our pets die from toxic materials in the dog food. Our kids get sick playing with lead-painted toys.



And nobody does anything to correct it.



More and more people are coming down with strange cancers and other health conditions brought on by air and water pollution and neglect.



This is not the America I remember.



When I was young, the air was clear and the water drinkable. Today, you are warned to have your water checked regularly.



At the same time, the coal burning monoliths continue to spout their residues into land and water, heating up the water and contributing to Global Warming and nobody seems to care.



Our representatives don’t respond to our letters and the media seems indifferent to our plight.



No, this is not the America I grew up and it’s not the one I would like to remember.



I’m a Veteran of a Foreign War as was my dad who sacrificed everything to live here and save democracy from the "enemy."



Well, today, for the first time in my life, I am thinking of packing my bags and moving.



If no one is going to do anything to save this country, our Constitution and our Democracy, then it is merely landscape undifferentiated from anywhere else in the world and it would behoove me, or you to look for a home that will see that we don’t die in the streets from malnutrition and neglect and that my kids get a decent break.



I am tired of living in a monarchy where 1% of the population owns more than sixty five percent of its wealth and the top tier five percent own virtually everything. i don't want to live in a country where the executive on the floor earns 400 times an hour what I make.



That's not Democracy; that's a theocracy.



And if that means leaving, so be it.



Les Aaron

SHIFTING DYNAMICS REFLECT CHANGES ESPECIALLY IN THE WEST


i THINK WHAT MOST OF US FAIL TO UNDERSTAND, AT LEAST THOSE OF US WHO HAVE COMMITTED THE OLD ELECTORAL MAPS TO MEMORY, IS THAT THE WORLD NO LONGER FALLS IN LINE WITH WHAT HAPPENS IN THE EAST, THE RUST BELT STATES AND CALIFORNIA, TEXAS OR FLORIDA.

IN FACT, THERE IS A NEW DYNAMIC SHAPING AMERICA.

THE TRUTH IS THAT THE MAP HAS BEEN REDRAWN TO GIVE GREATER EMPHASIS TO THE ROLE OF THE WEST, THE NORTHWEST, THE SOUTHWEST. BEFORE THOSE STATES WERE FIGURED TO MAINLY GO REPUBLICAN.
\
BUT IMMIGRATION AND CHANGING ATTITUDES AND AN INFLUX OF NEWCOMERS HAVE CHANGED THE DYNAMICS.

FIGURE THAT UNTIL LAST YEAR, NEVADA WAS THE FASTEST GROWING STATE.

ALL OF THESE CHANGES AND IMMIGRATION HAS GIVEN THESE IMPORTANT WESTERN STATES ADDED CLOUT.

AND THOSE LOCKED IN THE PAST ARE GOING TO HAVE THEIR COMEUPPANCE IF THEY DON'T TAKE THESE CHANGING DYNAMICS TO HEART.

I THINK IT WAS BRILLANT THAT THE DEMS SHOWED THEIR UNDERESTANDING THAT THESE CHANGES ARE NOT TEMPORARY BY HOLDING THE CONVENTION IN DENVER INSTEAD OF NEW YORK OR CALIFORNIA.

WE ARE SEEING A RE-EMERGENCE OF NEW DEMOCRATS WHO ARE SPEAKING MORE FOR THE CHANGING DISPOSITION OF AMERICA, TOO, AND THESE CHANGES MAY BE PROFOUND IN THE OVERALL SCHEME OF THINGS....

CONSIDER SOME OF THE NEW DEMOCRATS WHO ARE NOW RUNNING STATES OR ACTIVELY REPRESENTING THEM. FOR THE MOST PART, THEY REPRESENT VOTERS WHO ARE FED UP WITH THE UNPARALLELED EMPHASIS ON CLEAR CUTTING, DRILLING AND MINING THAT IS DESTROYING OUR LEGACY.

AND THEY ARE SIMPLY UNHAPPY WITH THE STATUS QUO.

PHIL GRAMM'S UNTIMELY AND INSENSITIVE REMARKS ONLY HELP TO EXACERBATE THE GROWING GAP BETWEEN THE TRADITIONALIST REPUBLICANS AND THE CHANGING MOOD AND DIRECTION OF THE COUNTRY.

AND WHAT HAPPENS IN THESE AREAS MAY JUST CHANGE THE OUTCOME OF THE ELECTION.

LES AARON

Swiftboating 2008



When it comes to politics, us old timers like to refer to a shaking of the bones, old witches brews, gut instincts, experience and being out there on the front lines…..



We know that the republicans know how to use innuendo and unproven claims to hobble the opposition and they do a damned good job of it.



Over the last thirty five years, there has always been a dirty tricks contingent laying the mines and serving as the zappers of the castle…. And they are always good at it. It seems that politics has become entwined in everything else but the issues. “Who was your minister?” “Do you have the right values?” “Are you a patriot?” It’s almost as if the non-sequiters, per se, have taken over.



And it’s depressing that we have veered so far off the mark.



Nontheless, it has become republican tactic and strategy inasmuch as there are very few positives they can point to and the Atwater strategy was so effective at the time of nailing Dukakis, why not keep using it to death.



To accomplish the mission, the republicans pay to maintain a PR engine that knows no equal in the history of politics; an engine that mobilizes the media, advertising, direct marketers and PR specialists to hit on everything they can to raise questions and doubts about the democratic opposition.



At some point, men of good conscience, if there are any left, must come together to say enough is enough. And if the whole matter isn't ugly enough, new fuel is being added daily.



Now, the New Yorker, has come out with a cover that they claim satirizes Obama by picturing him as a Muslim and his wife as a militarist with the appropriate AK 47 on her shoulder. They call this satire; well, I tend to think of it as pandering to the lowest common denominator, and if I hadn’t already cancelled my subscription, I would do so again.



It’s bad enough that people tend to believe all of the bad and unjustified stories out there but for a legitimate and serious publisher to pick up that argument accomplishes nothing other than give credibility to all of those mindless bigots out there who mask their other agendas with biased claims . It is unfortunate, it is ugly and it panders to our darkest side. Again, yesterday, the McLaughlin Group, aggravated the potential schism between the old and the new, by claiming that the old-timers among black activists tend not to see the young inherit their mantle especially when they are viewed as an “Oreo.” This is race baiting of the worst kind and designed to pander to the lowest common denominator. Yet, it is what we are going to see a lot of right up until the Election.



McCain said he was going to run a completely different kind of election; to many of us, it seems like business as usual.



After thirty five years, it is time that well-intentioned democrats realize what is going on and fight fire with fire.



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon

Discontent Brewing: Will it Stiffle Democrats Chances?



The former editor from Slate, Michael Kinsley, was right on the money.….



There is trouble brewing on the democratic side that could affect the outcome of the Democratic convention and possibly the race.



And while he mainly talked about the Hillary—Obama snag, there are other potentially volatile issues. Let see if we can chronicle the more important ones that do not seem to be going away quietly as many of us had hoped at the end of the Primary.



Part of the problem has to do with the fact that Obama supporters are disinclined to toss money into the pot to help Clinton pay off her campaign debt which they felt was unnecessary to incur since it was clear that she wasn’t going to win months before.. Also, many are troubled by the waves created by the Clinton campaign—including the remarks by Bill Clinton and Hillary’s campaign remarks that seemed to have given McCain and the republicans sufficient ammunition to carry them through the campaign.



Hillary’s supporters are unwilling to put aside their bad feelings claiming that they have been mistreated by the media.



And her supporters feel that a delegate count at the Convention would be justified as would her appointment to the Vice President spot although ardor seems to have cooled on that particular issue in recent weeks..



The second problem is the move by Obama to the center which has alienated many from his firm base of support. Liberals and progressives are troubled by his willingness to allow the telecommunications companies to get a free pass by his vote for the FISA bill and what that means to the Fourth Amendment. Others, feel that Obama’s embrace of the center has meant compromise on other issues important the left including what seems to be a shift of position on Iraq although Obama attests that his positions have not changed from the original debates.



The republicans seem to be having a field day with this. And they are trying to build a case that increasingly Obama is starting to look like any other politician.

Red-blooded republicans are starting to taste blood and are gathering around the presumptive leader even though they may not care for him particularly. Nevertheless, McCain is doing well raising money for himself and his party.



Many are also troubled by Obama’s failure to take on the republicans more aggressively---especially in light of Phil Gramm’s claims that Americans are wrong headed thinking negatively about the economy.



The left wing and the progressives feel that he should not have been allowed to get away with some of the things he said and that Obama should have been more aggressive in presenting his case.



Obama is headed to Iraq and the republicans are using this opportunity to tout John McCain’s experience in having made the trip eight times despite the fact that he still can’t seem to differentiate a Shia’ from a Shiite without Joe Lieberman’s help.



All in all, many spot troubles ahead and that seems to be reflected in the fall-off of campaign donations that seem to coincide with further charges of
“flip-flopping….”



It will take time to sort this out.



But right now, the threat of disharmony in the party and other factors have leveled out Obama’s advantages in the polls. Now, the latest poll show only a four point advantage for Obama nationally, down from double digits.



It is not a good sign; on the other hand, it is still early in the game. It is quite possible that all of these concerns may be solved before the Convention and that there is harmony in the party come the Fall. Most of us democrats who have sat through eight years of pain and discomfort certainly hope so….



Les Aaron

To the Hon. Mr. Phil Gramm,
Economic Adviser to John McCain,
Candidate for President of the United States


Dear Mr. Gramm,

I am one of those people, I guess, you characterize as a “whiner” with mental problems about the idea of an economy that’s bankrupt and a government that’s indifferent to working people and those without power.

I am one of those “whiners” you talk about who whined way back when we were told that we were going to become a white collar nation and business got the the green light to move their businesses off shore.

I saw that we were being set up for an exodus and the substitution of American workers by illegal immigrants and green card holders which the Republican government never adequately addressed.

And I whined when those special “white collar” jobs started going to holders of special Green cards or , instead wound up being shipped to Bangladesh or India or China.…

And I “whined” when Bush assumed the powers of Fast Track which allowed him to give away our nuclear secrets in exchange for fruit from India.

I “whined” when the colleges we support with our tax dollars allowed their research to flow to foreign countries without penalty so that foreign countries could out-compete us globally with the products of our own invention.


I whined, too, when they asked me to train my replacement, a Green card holder from India; my boss claiming that I was “over qualified. ” which was republican code for a democrat making too much money.

I whined when the government never set up a realistic energy policy for the people. And I was outraged that a cabal of energy profiteers was running our country. I whined some more.

I whined, when we the greatest nation earth, could not help our less fortunate brothers and sisters in New Orleans because of an act of Nature; yet managed to turn the aid over to developers to build new gambling casinos and expensive homes..

I whined, too, when they cut back my children’s scholarship while this selfish, blind-sided government went ahead with a Star War’s program that never worked and never would and robbed our children of a misspent 240 billion dollars. I didn’t hear any one on the republican side that that was stupid or unfair. No, isn’t it nice when everything’s so one-sided, Mr. Gramm..

I whined when the credit card companies, acting collusively, raised my interest rates and the mortgage companies increased my payments because they could get away with it with a government that has at least in the last eight years always settled on business’s side.

And by the way, I understand that you had something to do with that and profited nicely from others’ pain so I can understand why you call the rest of us in the real world “whiners.”

I also “whined” when I was on the receiving end of the “doughnut” in the pharmaceutical plan for most Americans that the lobbyists worked out with Congress and that I cannot afford to pay; I whined, too, with the increases in my medical expenses that leave me hobbled with inadequate money to cover my old age or the resources to protect my wife.

And I whined about a lot of other things that your candidate seems unwilling and too disconnected to care about. Like the absence of positive measures to deal with Global warming and air and water pollution that comes from the burning of fossil fuels that endangers our health and our futures. Your boss claims that he is right on economics and what’s good for us, but I whine when I view his record of second guessing and non-accomplishment!

And I whine because our government has dropped its mandate to inspect the foods we eat….the toys we import and the feed we give to our pets. It should be no surprise that people are being poisoned, animals have died and many of us have become sick because our government no longer does the job it was entrusted to do….

And I whine because we have sold out to foreign interests like Japan, China, Saudi Arabia and India….

And because our exports to China, mostly scrap and agricultural products are dwarfed by imports that are in imbalance to the tune of over 60 billion dollars a month….

I whine because our government lies to us…..

And ignores the Constitution while moving forward with programs that go from eavesdropping illegally to torture of innocent people that we won’t even acknowledge but that the rest of the world knows about and condemns us for….

I whine about the fact that my kids will not know the benefits we had known….

That they will have to struggle to put food on the table, pay their mortgage and pay for their gasoline because of “dumbed down” selfish policies that emanate from your government, Mr. Gramm, the kind of government you made possible when you were in the House and it was then okay to rubber stamp corruption, illegal fund raising, and adding “add-ons” to bills to pay back your friends and donors.

Yeah, I’m angry that as a tax payer, I am the one who helped underwrite a War that was unnecessary and resulted in the deaths of many thousands, and others not reported, and the virtual end of the careers for thousands more….I think there is no greater sin!

I’m angry about all of that. Angrier than you’ll ever know.

And I whine about the fact that my representatives don’t represent me any longer and I whine because I see the America that my family has fought for going down the tubes precisely because of selfish, heartless, greedy creatures like yourself. And, frankly, Mr. Gramm, I don’t give a damn what you think!.

Les Aaron

WHAT’S WRONG WITH US?

Why are we so ungrateful?

Why do we see things as out of whack?

Why can we not appreciate our blessings?


Well, I guess now we know.

McCain and Company has given us all the answers we need.

We are in “mental depression, ” according to the republican pundits who know about such things.

“The trouble dear heart, is not in our stars, it is with us.”

We should have known better.

And I guess we owe an apology to the powers that be.

After all, if God didn’t want GWB in power, he would have done something
About those hanging chads….

Thanks for clearing that up.

It is not the government that needs to get straightened out, it is the American people who need to get our heads screwed back on right.

I suspect that next the Bush-McCain government will allow the GI bill to be used for our mental problems….

One wonders how we could have allowed ourselves to sink to such a level and acquire such distorted views.

Where had we gone wrong?.

Were we too questioning? Were we too mistrustful of our sacrosanct leadership?

It may take time to diagnose where so many of us could have misjudged everything so badly.

Clearly, Bush and Cheney and Rumsfeld were only interested in the welfare of the people, not in their own self-aggrandizement.

Those secret oil meetings were really for our benefit…

And the snooping on our telephone calls and emails, also to help us fight terrorism.

And can you imagine if we had to fight them over here, instead of over there.

Why did we not see that?

And of course they were right to blame Sadam for being in the pocket of bin Laden.

And we were right to talk about Crusades in order to inflame the hatreds against Western Christians….

So what if we haven’t found the WMD; it doesn’t mean that they’re not there. Does it?

And we were all wrong to make such a big deal about clean air and clean water and all of that Global Warming malarkey.

I mean so what if a few species like polar bears and penguins have to go….that’s the way the world works, in cycles, don’t you see. And so what if the water levels rise.

That will only mean that more of us will have waterfront property.

Let’s dwell on the good side. Let’s get those flag buttons out, even though they’re made in China. And lets look for those photo ops so our neighbors won’t think we’re malingerers…


The real trouble is that we don’t appreciate what this government has done for us.

Therefore, I would like to propose a Government Appreciation Day…..January 20th 2012. Isn’t that the day the Mayan calendar comes to an end?

The Armchair Curmudgeon

Les Aaron
The Power of One Society

The Wonderful World of George:


What a wonderful world George has passed along to us…

Even the makeup of the government he bestowed on us would be laughable if we examined their qualifications and merits if it weren’t so damned personal.

To spare us that agony, let us just conclude that virtually every Cabinet appointment was either a sinecure or an appointment from the industry that said appointee was supposed to monitor and control. (Didn’t we all know that they were going to return from where they came as soon as George returns to the ranch?)

All along, we folk, naïve as we are, had assumed that the Interior Secretary would have a stake in being concerned about the interior.

That would seem to have a certain logic to it.

We did not dream that the Interior Secretary would be hard-driving advocate of economic development of the Interior with the focus on drilling, clear-cutting, and mining—three things considered inimical with the Secretary’s obligations.

And you can go right down the line and find the same parallels in virtually every Cabinet appointment made by our Pasha of self-interest.

Look at FDA, populated by people from the food and drug industries, they are sworn to monitor and control the industries they oversee, and if that gives you fits, it is quite reasonable under the circumstances. These are the same folk who allow medicines, food supplements and other consumable products into our country that are not tested or inspected at all. And when approached about their obligations, simply blow it off!

Of course, Americans are big believers in trust so we have to factor that in….that is until there is some kind of a National scandal as there is now, and as there was over the past eight years of fumbling the ball.

You can look at Treasury. We just appointed a new Attorney General who thinks of water boarding as a sport and would rather be somewhere else than having to make legal decisions….. Seems rather incongruous wouldn’t you think?

At least there’s OSHA. What about OSHA? Aren’t they the folks who postponed the clear air and clean water acts for another ten years. And postponed legislation already on the
books because the dirty industries were not quite ready to clean up!

Nothing so irregular with HUD.

Really, didn’t they just ask the Chair to resign for money irregularities…..i.e. bribes and kick-offs which were vehemently denied until the wealth of evidence was overwhelming….

How about the past?

Well, Christy Whitman—a Bush appointee-- swore on a stack of bibles that the air right after 9/11 had been tested and there was nothing to worry about.

We wonder why then so many “first responders” are now coming down or dying from air-related diseases?

And need we mention, Mr. Brown, who distinquished himself according to GW for doing such a great job of bailing out New Orleans and helping “the locals.” That’s the place John McCain would have visited if he had known about the disaster although he was said to be right next store in Arizona celebrating his birthday with G.W. Bush, who later realized it might be necessary to fly over the destroyed city and wave a flag or something for a photo op on his way back to the ranch.

As a postscript, if I recall, all the money went to developers, when it did come and they used that money to bring in new businesses and gambling ventures.

And then when we had to do something, they gave everybody who bitched and moaned about the government’s failings, a mobile home that would eventually kill them off from the fumes they inhaled. I guess that’s one solution.

I mean you and I both know we could go on and on and quote chapter and verse about this government of personal economic opportunity and ensuing chaos.

But why bother. We all know that already.


PS Dennis has been patently unsuccessful in lining up support for the Impeachment of George W. Bush for lying to Americans about starting a war against Iraq.

What will they then do about Iran?

Was that the Statue of Liberty shedding a tear?

The Armchair Curmudgeon

Les Aaron
The Power of One Society.

Doing Something!

Again, the specter of war with Iran confronts us.



But what can we do about it?.



For the last year or so, we wrote to each other expressing our disdain for such a cock-eyed idea. War with Iran seems so crazy to any rational person. Some of us wrote to our representatives. Others tried other means.



Overall, whatever we did seemed to have little or no effect.



Obviously, one thing is clear: Our conventional approaches accomplish nothing.



We may feel better about complaining or screaming to our friends, or beating our chests, but in the end, what does it do?



Nothing!



Where we have gone wrong is in complaining to the choir.



We are all sitting in the same pew.



What we need to do is externalize our activities so that they become much more visible among those who don’t use the Internet.



This is a hard to grasp. It’s hard for me.



I’ve been working with the Internet since 94.



But didn’t really get involved til around 98.



I can’t believe everyone isn’t caught up in this new powerful new medium.



But the fact is that they aren’t.



So, while we may feel somewhat relieved knowing that we have gotten our frustration off of our chests, in fact what we have only succeeded in doing is telling each other.



But how can we really be effective in reaching beyond those who live, eat and sleep the Internet.



Ah, that’s quite another story.



I saw that happen when Howard Dean lost in the primary.



The legions of "Deaniacs" regrouped.



Many formed into the grass roots movements of the day.



They started their own progressive movement.



A few got into office at the local level.



Some of us went to work trying to change things locally.



Let me tell you that if you didn’t do any more than work on your local party, you would be accomplishing something.



Some of these local parties are so far behind the times it would be laughable if it weren't so sad.



Some are led by people who’s only qualification is that they show up regularly.



Many don’t seem to have a clue about what’s going on politically or what they should do to mobilize the local troops.



We started the Power of One Society to get involved in such "reawakenings."



And other projects to improve things—even on a micro scale.



Frequently, we join with others to leverage our strength and power; sometimes, we form coalitions to get the job done.



One thing is sure: If we don’t do something---anything, we can be sure that nothing will change.



That should be incentive enough.



Les Aaron

The Armchair Curmudgeon





For the Power of One Society

America’s Three Dumbest Companies….


IBM, Xerox and GM were once touted as some of the smartest companies on earth.
Everyone paid them tribute. We took our management lessons from them; they were featured in the Harvard Business classes as examples we could learn from.

Since then, the shroud of ignorance has been lifted from our shoulders. We have poked, picked and examined them from every angle and discovered that we were wrong in our assessments. Over time, we had learned how wrong we had been by following the popular culture. Instead of being the smartest companies in America despite their longevity, they are perhaps the dumbest.

The amazing thing is that at the time, everybody thought that they would remain at the top of their industries. Nobody thought they could do any wrong.

In this brief essay, we will just touch the highlights but no doubt, anyone who was not intimately familiar with these companies and how they operate, companies once believed to be juggernauts, should come away with a new perspective and revised perceptions about what makes a company great..

Let’s begin with IBM. When I first became involved with computers, IBM was the model for us all to study. There were some ten to twelve competitors at the time, but IBM controlled the lion’s share, something like 88% of all business. The rest divided up by the competitors including GE, Honeywell, NCR, Burroughs, Control Data and Sperry.

Sperry had been the first in the field and the original leader. However, it’s marketing department had sat down to anticipate the size of the market for computers and arrived at the number twelve. They were superseded by IBM almost immediately who sold something like 140,000 of their 1401 Series by 1964.

IBM made the mistake along the way of ignoring those who were outside the company and that brought about their fall from grace. To them, the people who played with the little black boxes, then called Commodores, weren’t worth thinking about.

However, when IBM went outside to find its Operating System, it went to one of those who happened to see a future in those “little black boxes.” His name was Bill Gates and he owned nothing but bid immediately on providing an operating system for the IBM behemoth. Bill Gates then went to the owner of the system in San Francisco and bought the rights. It changed the computer industry forever and it lost IBM its advantage.
All the rest was history, Bill Gates formed Microsoft and built a fortune by just offering operating systems and software and staying away from hardware.

A brilliant move by a brilliant and futurist, Bill Gates.

But IBM didn’t end the tomfoolery there. Tom Watts decided that they no longer wanted to build their own chips so that they would go outside. Subcontractors were all the rage.
They offered the opportunity to a small company called Intel with a very smart president who understood what IBM was putting up for grabs. Today, Intel is the largest manufacturer of chips worldwide. Moreover, both Intel and Microsoft earn more than IBM ever dreamed of.

At the time, Xerox was riding high. It held all the patents on xerography and the company based in Rochester couldn’t keep up with demand. It had also started an R&D venture in Palo Alto, California. But the distance between research and the suits that drove the business was far greater than any physical geography.

The engineers at Palo Alto had really come up with something big.

But the suits simply didn’t get it.

Word got out to Bill Gates and Steve Jobs and they came to visit.
What they saw, also changed the physical face of computing forever.

It was something called the “graphical interface.” Up til then, all computing was very prosaic: lists of numbers and alphanumeric characters, no graphics!

Jobs seized the idea for use with his new “black box,” what was to evolve into the Apple pc.

IBM still thought of the pc market as something not to be taken too seriously.

The “Killer Applications” came following the development of the graphical interface and the market for Apple computers exploded.

Xerox never got it.

By the time they went to court, their hold on the computer industry was little more than a moot point. They had lost out big time to become the leader of the computer industry.

GM was always a hidebound company. It hired from Detroit, people who knew the car industry. It never went outside to get outside viewpoints, as explained by the former head of the Cadillac Division, Delorean, who built his own car company and the fabulous Delorean, with its stainless steel body and gull-shaped doors.

Delorean wrote in his book, On a Clear Day, you can see GM, about how GM developed policy and how really isolated its managers were.

For example, to review a new idea, management had to see it three times. First, it had to be sent to the managers for review before a meeting could be planned.

Then the managers approved the meeting but usually fell asleep during it because they had already seen everything and then there was a final wrap up which nobody paid attention to. It takes time to see every idea three times and between that and their isolation and identification with a world of their own making, they fell behind in the important task of knowing what their customers sought in an automobile.

The Japanese, however, not so smug or complacent, came to this country and asked questions and talked to the consumer and changed the nature of the automobile industry once and for all times. Get this: They actually built the car the driver wanted.

(I was a former GM customer who decided to quit after a Buick purchased in 1984 from the dealer was delivered without the right shocks, the right PCV valve, faulty door opening devices and a bumper that was only bolted on and then stolen. I had the car in service for every day for the first six months…)

Today, GM is in shock. The market for its big juicy oil guzzlers has evaporated.

My God, isn’t that a surprise especially with fuel costs at over $4.00 a gallon.

China is currently turning out 9 million cars a year; a country that was in the backwoods hardly twenty years ago.

In ten years, they will be producing as many cars as we produce in the US.

The Japanese are making hybrids and have been for years.

And the Japanese have just completed the first hydrogen operated fuel cells for commercial use in cars….

The Indians are already building a $2,000 car.

Where does this leave the smartest automotive company on the planet?

I posited these three alone because we can learn from their mistakes.

In this case, the beneficiaries have been Apple, Microsoft, and Toyota.

Without Xerox, Apple wouldn’t have realized its potential; without IBM, Microsoft might still be just an idea and without GM, Toyota wouldn’t have conquered the auto race for first place.

Hard lessons to learn that counter the prevailing intelligence but vital if we are to ever move forward again.

Les Aaron
The Armchair Curmudgeon.


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