Tuesday, May 23, 2006

This is an anxious time for me. As usual, I've agreed to take on more tasks than you can normally fit into the alloted time. But I'm determined to do my best on all of them.

Several years ago, I was fuming about what had happened to our government and decided to write a guide for taking back the White House. But what I had originally figured as a kind of hand-out just grew like Topsy; now I am fighting to keep it under 350 typed pages!...believe it or not.

It's funny. This is a book that keeps writing itself. There are so many areas that I feel passionate about that it gives me new momentum every time I sit behind the word processor.

The writing hasn't proven to be the hard part of this book, however, the editing has.
If you have a love affair with words--and meanings--it is often difficult to find a more economical way to say what you want. When I first started out as a writer, I thought the idea was to make every sentence sound like it was written by Shakespeare but after 35 years as a writer and copywriter for clients around the world, I quickly came to the conclusion that economy of thought was best! Get your point across as quickly and efficiently as possible; don't beat around the bush...unless you are targeting a real Bush...

It is easy to use your book as a vehicle for your growing frustration but that would simply miss the point. You are writing a guide and that guide has to be useful and instructive. So, I review and I review with that thought in mind...

At the same time, I served as a member of a new Artists Guild and agreed to commit to showing some of my work at the upcoming Show which is only about two weeks away.
I had promised myself to devote a good part of my time to doing some new work for the Show but real world events intervened.

What do I mean by real world events? This is the start of the political season and I, as an activist, agreed to support two local politicians, both new to office.
If you don't think that this can take time and effort, you need to think again.

On top of all that, I am an Internet nut with three active Blogs that I try to keep going and membership on several mailing lists not to mention my own mailing list that keeps me riveted to the computer and the Internet.

I'm not worried about the political stuff because I know I can do that with my eyes closed; it's the artwork for the show that got's me going.

When it comes to art, there has always been a duality in what I want to do.
I am a good literalist in terms of making watercolors that look like a particular subject. But that isn't what really turns me on. My real love is experimentalism that has going way into the night experimenting with colors, techniques, treatments, papers, presentation and the whole nine yards. In this experimentation, I find that I get the most satisfaction when I become part of the medium; that I don't try to intellectualize a solution but am guided by the materials, colors and white space.
in these efforts, I am not seeking to please anyone but myself. And this raises question marks because I will not be able to sell my work unless others resonate with what i am trying to do. Nor do I want to do what others expect me to do.
I really want to get into the materials, the colors, the textures to investigate them and see how distinct shapes emerge from my experiments. This is what drives me.
but is hard to explain and oftentimes leaves me exhausted with failed experiments or frustration with not arriving at a solution that I feel is honest and what I am trying to shape out of the materials at my disposal. Hard to understand I suspect.

Anyway, I suppose that most legitimate artists and not copiers or hacks really strive for this kind of separate reality and would know what I am talking about.

So, I shall keep on with my juggling act in the expectation that everything will come together in two weeks.

Excuse me, now, I have to jump back to my book!....I need to edit some more.

Les Aaron

Saturday, May 20, 2006

GOP Shouldn't Count its Eggs...



Growing Number of GOP Seats In DoubtVulnerability Seen In Unusual Places
By Michael D. Shear and Dan BalzWashington Post Staff WritersSaturday, May 20, 2006; A01
VIRGINIA BEACH, May 19 -- When some of the country's top political handicappers drew up their charts of vulnerable House incumbents at the beginning of this year, Rep. Thelma D. Drake (R-Va.) was not among them. Now she is.
President Bush carried her district with 58 percent of the vote in 2004, but strategists say his travails are part of the reason the freshman lawmaker now has a fight on her hands. He swooped into town briefly Friday for a closed-door fundraiser for Drake but made no public appearances.
Drake, who won with ease two years ago, is not alone. With approval ratings for Bush and congressional Republicans at a low ebb, GOP strategists see signs of weakness where they least expected it -- including a conservative, military-dominated suburb such as Virginia Beach -- and fear that their problems could grow worse unless the national mood brightens.
Some veterans of the 1994 GOP takeover of Congress see worrisome parallels between then and now, in the way once-safe districts are turning into potential problems. Incumbents' poll numbers have softened. Margins against their Democratic opponents have narrowed. Republican voters appear disenchanted. The Bush effect now amounts to a drag of five percentage points or more in many districts.
The changes don't guarantee a Democratic takeover by any means, but they are creating an increasingly asymmetrical battlefield for the fall elections: The number of vulnerable Democratic districts has remained relatively constant while the number of potentially competitive Republican districts continues to climb.
Stuart Rothenberg, editor and publisher of a political newsletter, now has 42 Republican districts, including Drake's, on his list of competitive races. Last September, he had 26 competitive GOP districts, and Drake's wasn't on the list. "That's a pretty significant increase," he said. "The national atmospherics are making long shots suddenly less long."
At the Cook Political Report, Amy Walter has revised an analysis of the battle for control of the House, taking into account the sour mood toward Republicans nationally as a potentially significant factor in races that might otherwise turn on local issues, candidate performance or the size of campaign war chests.
"In a nationalized election, the typical laws of gravity get thrown out the window," Walter said. "Under-funded candidates beat better-funded candidates, and entrenched incumbents lose to first-time challengers."
Republicans said these trends in recent polling data are an early alert, not a cause for panic. Their strategists argue that their incumbents will not be caught by surprise, as many Democrats were in 1994, when they were swept from power in the House after 40 years.
House Republican campaign officials are taking steps to protect their vulnerable candidates with money, opposition research, negative television ads and campaign messages designed to fly below the worst of the national turbulence. But they know there is only so much they can do if Bush's approval rating stays below 40 percent and voters continue to say they want a change in direction.
Drake, a first-term representative, isn't yet among the most endangered GOP incumbents. But she is one of many -- and not just inexperienced lawmakers -- who could be at risk if there is an anti-Republican wave in the fall. Among House incumbents added to some GOP watch lists in recent months are veteran Reps. Nancy L. Johnson (Conn.), Deborah Pryce (Ohio), Charles Bass (N.H.), J.D. Hayworth (Ariz.) and Richard W. Pombo (Calif.).
The National Republican Congressional Committee chairman, Thomas M. Reynolds (R-N.Y.), acknowledged Tuesday that the national mood has accelerated campaign planning by many incumbents. While vowing that Republicans will maintain their House majority in the fall, regardless of the national climate, Reynolds said, "Members [are] paying much more attention and putting together campaigns earlier."
Virginia's 2nd Congressional District, home to the U.S. Navy's Atlantic Fleet, generally is solid Republican territory. Bush won the district with 58 percent of the vote in 2004, and Drake was elected with 55 percent. But Democratic Gov. Timothy M. Kaine won the district in his victory last November, and the fact that Drake, a 56-year-old former real estate agent and state legislator, is in her first term adds to the list of GOP worries.
Around Virginia Beach, Republicans believe the race is Drake's to lose but say she nonetheless faces a long six months. "I think Thelma is going to have to campaign hard, and she will," said state Del. Leo C. Wardrup Jr., who helped recruit Drake into Congress.
Her opponent, Democrat Phil Kellam, Virginia Beach commissioner of revenue, believes the most effective line of attack is to paint Drake as a loyal vote for the president at a time when Bush's popularity has declined even in red states he carried in 2004. "She is grafted to this president," Kellam said.
Drake did not attend Friday's fundraiser luncheon with the president, but her aides said the reason had nothing to with Bush's political standing. They said she was in Washington for a vote on legislation affecting military families.
White House officials acknowledge that the president's time is too valuable to waste on safe incumbents. In some cases, the boost from a presidential fundraiser can turn a potentially competitive race into a relatively safe seat, but that was not the expectation Friday. "She's got a real competitive race," a Bush adviser said of Drake, speaking on the condition of anonymity in order to give a candid assessment.
After helping Drake pick up about $475,000, Bush flew to Kentucky to raise money for another embattled Republican, Rep. Geoff Davis, who is being challenged by former Democratic representative Ken Lucas.
Democrats do not yet consider Drake among their best targets, but they hope to make her one. The national party began running radio ads here this week, attacking Drake for backing Bush's plan to revamp Social Security. The liberal group MoveOn.org says it has spent more than $100,000 running television ads attacking her ethics.
Drake said the Democrats' strategy of trying to use Bush against her won't work. "I would much rather think like President George Bush than to think like Senator Ted Kennedy, [Democratic Party Chairman] Howard Dean or [House Minority Leader] Nancy Pelosi," she said in an interview from her Capitol Hill office.
Although Drake quickly earned a seat on the House Armed Services Committee, a coveted spot for a district with some of the world's largest military bases, Kellam hopes to turn the district's large military presence to his advantage.
In an interview, he said he does not support a rapid pullout of troops from Iraq, but he criticized Drake, saying she has failed to ask tough questions about the conduct of the war. "Can you tell me that the Congress has scrutinized the Department of Defense as much as is necessary?" he asked.
Kellam has also seized on the fate of the huge Oceana Naval Air Station, targeted for possible closure by a congressional commission. He accused Drake and other Virginia Republicans of failing to do enough to keep the station's jets in the area.
Drake responded angrily, saying that Virginia's Democrats and Republicans have worked together to protect the base. She also said she has worked hard on Iraq, visiting troops twice since taking office, and called Kellam's criticisms "absolutely false, untrue [and] deliberately misleading."
Drake's goal will be to rebut Kellam's criticisms and prove to constituents that she has delivered for them. Kellam's hope is that factors beyond Drake's control will overwhelm the customary political leanings of the district.
Balz reported from Washington. Special correspondent Chris Cillizza in Washington contributed to this report.
© 2006 The Washington Post Company

Unexpected Consequences

How Brazil is Influencing What is Happening in the US...


Years ago, it was thought that Mexico could serve as the economic engine for the rest of South and Central America. Our industry, which was very big, conducted a major trade show every other year in Anaheim; however, when all of the industry prophets decided to support such a trade show in Mexico City, most of the business left Anaheim and showed up in Mexico. This was the beginning we thought! And it was and I suspect it still is for packaging industry which is important because of the petrochemicals that it uses and the very fact that it touches virtually every industry. So what happens in packaging affects what happens in most industries; and what happens in most industries affect packaging. Therefore, this reciprocal relationship is worth following for its trends, impact and other tendencies. . Packaging is not necessarily a bellweather industry; more often than not it trails the rest of US industry....so when recession strikes, it is the last area of business to be affected.

Like most other industries, packaging has been impacted by the cost of petrochemicals. Consider that plastics are the fundamental component of most packaging which includes pallet wrapping at one end to packaging of small things such as disposables used in the medical industry. They all employ plastics to one degree or another. Consequently, when petrochemical costs rise, everything in the supply line is affected.

And while Mexico does market to the rest of South and Central America in increasing volume, the progress is being made further south. The real visionary model is turning out to be Brazil which its bold commitment to alternative energy. In this, they are way ahead of America although Ford cars and GM have adapted vehicles to run on fuel made fundamentally from sugar.

Yesterday, I met with Senator Carper junior senator and long term office holder for Delaware. He said that he's been having meetings with the automotive industry in Detroit and with Honda and Toyota to discuss alternative fuels. He said Honda has produced a car that operates on both fuel cells and conventional power. They also showed hydrogen models that could also fuel your home the entire year with enough left offer to return to the power grid.
He also talked about efforts to go a step beyond Brazil by coming up with technology for using not only the corn for Ethanol but to create fuel from the entire biomass, the husk, the stems, etc. DuPont now has an eighteen million dollar grant to do that and they are apparently making grand strides to come up with a lower cost alternative to conventional fuel.

Les Aaron

Thursday, May 18, 2006

The other day, Stanley Kunitz died. Stanley was the nation's poet laureate. And he was 100 years old. I read his obituary with interest inasmuch as Stanley was one of the people who passed through my life. I unfortunately was too young when I met Stanley. He had just become the recipient of a Pulitizer and he and I inhabited different worlds...his was generally about twelve inches above the ground. At the time, I was in his poetry class, the first one he gave at Queens College where he seemed to spend most of his time receiving adulation from the rest of the faculty. For Stanley, I think I was somewhat of a defeat: He told me that I was one of the worst students in his poetry class. Little did he know that later on, I would come to love the poetry of the Beat and would spend a great deal of time with other luminaries trying to hack out poems that mimicked Ferlenghetti and Russo and the others over pots of Irish coffee. Of course, we were all ruled by Howl! the book that changed a generation along with On the Road and the Dwarma Bums.... Yet, at this particular point in time, I was still struggling with my hyperbole, alliteration and syntax to be considered a serious poet. I thought of these things as I read his obit and learned more about the man than I ever did in person. The last time I saw or heard about Stanley, it was during a documentary about his garden and his writings that occupied his time up in Provincetown. Stanley, however, while he summered on the Cape loved New York City and maintained an apartment downtown where he could be close to all of those creative muses. I'll miss Stanley although I would doubt that he would have known me if I had crossed paths with him after graduation. He was truly unique and his poetry was of a kind that you don't hear much of any more tinged with classicism and ancient voices. Here's to you Stanley. May your voice carry on to add a little humanity to the din that makes up our overly commercialized world.

I'm not sure whether it's a blessing or a curse, but a few of us writers tend to be burdened by a parallel muse that doesn't give us a moment of peace. In my case, it's the fine arts. For me, writing was a way to earn a paycheck; it blossomed into an obsession where I could sit in front of a typewriter and spend the whole night typing out something that I might rip to shreds the following day after asking myself how the heck I wrote something like that. But I always carried my other muse around with me like a tattered old wallet. Some people love to speak, love to debate, argue, analyse, investigate, research, catalog, compartmentalize; I love to paint, sketch, cartoon. This puts me into kind of a unique position because when I story comes at me, I usually don't tend to see it as being a discrete event but oftentimes as a three dimensional entity that I can visually see in my mind's eye. More than that, I tend to see things stretched out as part of a continuum with no distinct beginning and end...where element a may be indirectly linked to b or possibly connected to c. I happen to think, too, in the quantum approach, that even my observation of the event may serve to change what is happening in some kind of unquantifiable way. Why do I mention these things? Because I think we all tend to believe what we see and read. And that is not always the case. Sometimes you have to factor in the writer, the director, the editor and all of the other factors in the equation and consider how much their input is in danger of changing the factual content or at least your impression of that content. We have all been torn by such issues when we see the president telling us that things are going well in the War; yet, we see before our eyes, accounts of stepped up bombings and increasing numbers of dead and wounded. Therefore, what the president tells us is in conflict with what we see and feel. It is the job of people like me to tell the story; it is the responsibility for those who receive the messages to put us to the test by exercising the judgment of an intelligent reader--to question the veracity of what they read and ask themselves whether that story is credible and should be accepted as part of your personal archive or whether it raises so many questions, that it should be discarded and supplanted by a more factual and reasoned account. It is in the exercise of such judgment that we differentiate ourselves from all others and assert our independence of thought--a very necessary precondition when lying, distortion and misleading accounts have become a common occurrence.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Chit chat.... What goes on behind the scenes. Many folks think that it's easy pulling together a newsletter. What's the big deal? You have no editor; you can put down what you want, when you want. And those criticisms are valid. But just the same, it's not really a walk in the park. Just deciding what you want to people to read about is challenge enough when there's enough information coming your way to choke a horse. I try to look for three things: It is unique in the sense that the conventional journals are not getting worked up about; is it provable? and is it germane to our focus. All the rest is nice but after I go through that sort of exercise, I still have to weigh, even subjectively, the information in terms of not only relevancy but also importance. Something could be really interesting to a farmer in Southeastern Alabama but have absolutely no relevancy to our reader. This should be obvious but it isn't always so. What that means is that you need to be able to stand back from the subject matter and see how it meets your criteria. Then when you decide that the subject fits from every perspective, then you have to get today's Olivetti out and type it up or so we used to say. Today, we don't have to worry about sending eight carbons to eight editors, each one who is ready to skin you alive. Fortunately, the Internet has freed us from that liability and it has even made available to us the ability to compress time and space in a kind of magic carpet approach to what is new and relevant. Think about it. When I was a kid, I had to wait a week to see what was happening on the War Front; now I get it immediately. Fortunes were made using the time and place gap to advantage. And knowledge is everything. And the Internet makes it all possible. In 1969, I went to a well heralded ATT presentation about the future. Their prophets saw the rest of us all linked by hologram technology so that we could see back and forth around the world. Well, their vision hasn't quite worked out that way; but in other ways, we are ahead of the curve in terms of technology. If you think about where would Luther be without the printing press....or the Rothchilds without their carrier pigeons, you can begin to understand the great power that we wield for good...or evil. The next step is to get ahead of Einstein and be able to write about things that haven't happened yet. Will it happen? I doubt it because the physics doesn't allow it but, nevertheless, today it is possible for a falling tree to be heard around the world in seconds...almost negating even the most extreme Zen critic's of this philosophical notion. In the meantime, we as reporters, editors, investigators and researchers plug along contemplating the next amazing breakthrough to revolutionize our technology...

For seven years now, we've been getting out a series of messages that bear the stamp of either the Armchair Curmudgeon or Hubmaster so finally we've decided that it's time to consider adding a Blog to the mix. This Blog will get behind the thoughts that trigger the Hubgram and investigate some of the stuff that gets bandied about the Internet. Hubgram is focused on issues and realities that impact everyman, you or me whether we are Anglo or otherwise. Among the topics we either treat are those that deal with the environment, precious resources and/or renewable alternatives, technology (designed to improve the lot of man)...., corruption at high levels, the private sector, the Court, Congress, policy and legislation, NAFTA and Fast Track, Global Warming and stuff like that. In the end, we are fixating on preserving our relationship with GAIA and that precious little blue orb that allows us from a remote place in the Universe to think that we really matter. We do that with a little insight, a little humor, a little disrespect, and hopefully a lot of savvy. For in our lexicon, that is ultimately the name of the game...We hope that you will come along and enjoy the ride. Sign up for our newsletter at Hubmaster@aol.com (use NEWSLETTER in subject).... les Aaron, the Committee for Positive Change