The Vacuum of the Well-Meaning...

HUBGRAM
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9/24/06

"When Cold Warriors Rule, You Wind Up With The Equivalent of a Cold War!"



Okay, it wasn't enough that they tuned in my emails; it wasn't enough that they listened to me talking to my grand-kids and saying some pretty unintelligible things and it wasn't enough that they blocked my emails, lost my messages in the electronic ether, checked out my bills and disseminated my personal information to those who have no business knowing about my personal life, now they have truly gotten me mad. they are looking into my bank account!

What is going on here?

It is clear that Madison, Washington, Adams and the rest of the crowd would be totally pissed off if they knew what was going on here. I mean England might have been demanding with those taxes and all that but, hey, they didn't get into my correspondence, my banking, my conversations.

Where does this end?

Or does it go on until we find our collective backbones.... We need to set the record straight and we need to do it now. We have to remind all of our public officials and those who would willingly poke into my background and the backgrounds of my friends that we are a democracy that is founded on things like the Bill of Rights and the Constitution.

These are not just a set of ordinary papers; these are papers that many of our heroes died defending. My dad spent four years in the service of his country to protect its documents; I spent another four years doing the same thing...as did my relatives and friends. I don't know how many died that I knew standing up for these documents that have formed our government and our way of life. And now they are being jetisoned for convenience.

First things first. We need to return to the rule of law. And we need to let our representatives know how we feel!

If we don't, they will believe that we are not interested enough in protecting our way of life.

The excuse about terrorism has gone far enough. 18 men have changed our democracy into a tyranny and as a result, bin Laden has won!

Shame on us!

Les Aaron

Euphemisms Don't Create Jobs!

Talk about a sleight of hand Republican Party, look around.
Notice anything missing?

Okay, I will give a clue.

Where is labor?

The last time I looked, labor was alive and well!

That was before the Republican magicians in management and government conspired to make labor disappear!

Now, you look around and you don't hear anything about it. And you might begin to puzzle how it all happened so quietly right under our noses.

Well, you emember those innocuous terms "downsizing, " "off-shoring," Green cards, merging and acquisitions,....well, they have all conspired to give us what the Republicans wanted all along: Democrats without their base.

In the past, the Dems could count on labor to do the heavy lifting; to stand out on the picket lines; to go out and get votes; to do the grunge work that nobody else was willing to take on...

Now, Labor is mostly gone. Replaced in part with a guest labor program and a relaxation of labor rules that has robbed labor of its backbone. Nor did it help, when most of our manufacturing base was shipped overseas because "we really didn't need manufacturing anymore..."

Even the august NYTimes never acknowledged that service jobs could never replace manufacturing jobs. Service jobs had no multiplier effect, they did not turn one dollar into six in the marketplace and, for the most part, they were low paying and part-time. But nobody seemed concerned.

Everything would work out fine according to the mantra of Republican management.

How will this impact our coming election?

A great deal; unless we can mobilize a new source of voter who is willing to take on the heavy lifting.

What we are seeing is not encouraging by any means.

And with Labor gone, what is going to happen to the "organizers, " the people who made things happen.

In the space of fifteen years, we have seen a labor-intensive workforce virtually disappear.
And all because of one little invention we were told would never replace a single job: the computer.

ironic!

Reminds me of viewing the guillotine as a way to eliminate painful punishments...

In the end, all one can say is that the republicans are very clever at euphemisms...

Les Aaron

Say Something Nice About Our Commander in Chief...

One of my grand-kids was entered into this contest to say something nice about our president in the spirit of the holiday. And she came to me because she was stuck.
This is a ten year old kid, mind you!
I told her I would help. That I could name at least five or ten nice things about our president.
And then she said, "like what?..." and I hammered and hawed.
"Okay, I am up to the challenge. Here's my list that we now need to incorporate into this essay which will be presented to the entire school.

"George W. Bush's father was president. That's nice! "
Ah, I'm gaining in confidence and I feel off to a pretty good start. Now, I'm running like a thoroughbread.

"And the president wears a nice suit and a tie to work. That's nice, too. "

"What else, grand-pa?"

"Let me think for a moment, dear. Ah, yes, the president is in pretty good shape by eating sensibly and going to bed early."

"Those things are not such a big deal for a president, grand-pa. What else can we say?"

"Mimi, I have the strange and distinct feeling that you are going to grow up and morph into a lawyer....You don't make it easy do you?"

"Please, grand-pa..."

"Now, I'm starting to develop the sweats; grandaughter has put grandpa on the spot and I am feeling the pressure."

Okay, okay....I got it. President Bush has some nice important friends."

"Grandpa, you promised. I want to know about him; not his friends."

"Okay, sweet pea! Cut ole' grandpa a little slack here, honey...."

"But it's for my paper..."
"Okay, okay....I got it. GWBush has the power to give all of our jobs to poor people in poor countries..."

"Why does that make him nice?"

"Well, he is helping those who need it most?"


"But, grandpa, if he gives them all of our jobs, what will be left for us?"

"Well, you asked how I can describe him using nice...."

"And what does that mean?"

"If he gives away all of our jobs, my legal eagle, it will be one nice kettle of fish."

G-R-A-N-D-P-A, you promised!

Hey, I can't help it; I ran out of all the nice things I could think of saying....however, there is only one other nice thing I can say."

"What's that, grandpa?"

I quit, dear, I am going to have a NICE cold glass of beer!"

Les Aaron