This truly is a frightening Halloween

Despite my effort to ignore the economy, every day brings new, outrageous information about how capitalism has been hijacked to benefit the few at the expense of the many. In today's WSJ (Banks Owe Billions to Executives, Ellen E. Schultz, October 31, 2008), Schultz says:

"...overlooked in these efforts [to reign in executive bonuses and pay for banks that have received taxpayer handouts in the billions] is the total size of debts that financial firms receiving taxpayer assistance previously incurred to their executives, which at some firms exceed what they owe in pensions to their entire work force."

The practice of deferred pay to executives is good for executives, "who delay taxes and see their deferred-pay accounts grow, sometimes aided by matching contributions."

When did not paying taxes while receiving money from other tax payers become patriotic?

She goes on,
"Obligations for executive pay are large for a number of reasons. Even as companies have complained about the cost of retiree benefits, they have been awarding larger pay and pensions to executives. At Goldman, for example, the $11.8 billion obligation primarily for deferred executive compensation dwarfed the liability for its broad-based pension plan for all employees. That was just $399 million, and fully funded with set-aside assets."

'Nuff said.

McCain to continue Bush's "kleptocracy"?

Syndicated columnist David Sirota's column today (Here's hoping "White House Cribs" never makes onto the air", Seattle Times, October 27, 2008), talks about the redistribution of wealth during Bush's tenure saying that

"President Bush gave to those making more than $342,000 a year began dramatically shifting the overall tax burden from the rich onto the rest of us. Meanwhile, because of lobbyist-crafted loopholes, most corporations pay zero federal income taxes.." The result -- "When counting all taxes (income, payroll, property, etc.), billionaires and Big Businesses often pay lower effective tax rates than their employees." He goes on to say, "In the age of Halliburton fraud and ExxonMobile subsidies, our government spends $93 billion a year on corporate welfare. (For comparison, that's roughly three times what it spends on a traditional welfare program like food stamps.)"

For the entire article go to http://action.credomobile.com/commentary/index.xml

Both fly, one's a bug -- trick or treat on the Waterfront

Some pictures of Andy from past Halloweens as an aviator and a fireman followed by this year's costumes.



Yesterday's weather was picture perfect for a day trick or treating on the Waterfront. With Sylvia, aka Butterfly, and Andy, aka Superman, we flitted and flew on the candy trail concluding with fun-filled festivities at the Aquarium. Out of the ordinary -- the diver in the tank was costumed, the jelly-fish tank was made into a boat, there was a door to "no where" on the octopus tank (and the octopus was looking unusually scary in keeping with the Halloween theme), the pirates showed up looking very "piratey" and the festivities were upped a notch with the great kid band, the Recess Monkeys. These guys are great! Andy rocked with the other costume bedecked munchkins and I ferried two very tired kids home.

Palin's not qualified say Alaskan women

Friend Kathy sent me this link. It is an interview with two Alaskan women on Sarah Palin. It's honest and enlightening.

http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/10/alaskans-get-it.html

Photos of Sid's Metal Work

In a previous blog I talked about Sid's new porch railing that he hand-crafted but I didn't have any pictures. Well, I finally did get some photos today and here they are. Pretty impressive.

Sing, sing, sing, sing....

Niece Michelle spearheaded a day in the recording studio featuring several Christmas songs with cugine as backup singers. We had terrific fun and we didn't sound all that bad either. Look for the CD release sometime around Christmas.

That was then, this is now.

Since 2005, when this editorial appeared, I have pinned it up in my office. Never has it been more relevant than right now. Especially when you consider John McCain's nine houses (so many he doesn't even know how many he has he says and please, let's not even get into the thirteen cars he has, so many he doesn't know that three are foreign having claimed he only buys American), but the fact that Dick Fuld, head of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. got $35 million in stock in 2007, only part of the $484 million he's collected since 2000, testified to the House Oversight Committee that the financial meltdown hurts him as much as it hurts us.

"Oh really? Is he offering to give severance to the Lehman secretaries left jobless? Is he going to let any of them who can't make their mortgage payments stay with him in at his mansion in Greenwich, Conn., his oceanfront estate in Florida, his ski chalet in Idaho, or his Manhattan apartment? says Margaret Carlson, syndicated columnist in today's Seattle Times editorial section (McCain as Captain Queeg; Obama as Presidential, October 12, 2008).

As she writes,

"...there's an awakening to what the non-elites did for the elites in the name of getting government off our backs. They created more elites, at least by income. There's a huge pay gap. Foreclosures are running at a record pace. Retirement savings have lost $2 trillion in value, while those who got us into this mess are still dining at Le Cirque and weekending in the Hamptons."

'Nuff said.

What We Do All Day While Mom, Dad and Andy Are Away

I babysat for Sylvia while her nanny Karen was away and we had three action-packed days. What fun.

Watching grandpa sew, hanging out, trying to get into Nonna's makeup.




Climbing up stairs and sliding down saying Eeeeeeee, playing in Andy's room -- dolls, house, crawling through tunnels (not shown), and reading books.






Swinging at the playground. Coloring, re-arranging furniture, and dancing in dad's office.

SNL VP Skit

Day with the Grandkids, baking pies, playing ball, little princess

While the pie baked the kids played indoors...






Tom promised Andy that they would make an applie pie together and so Saturday he did just that. Believe me, Andy loves his grandpa.

Exporting not democracy but financial chaos

Ironically, as this administration and the GOP candidates espouse the imperialist policy of exporting democracy around the world, they have been killing it here and at the same time destabilizing economies of our allies.

In today's Seattle Times, syndicated columnist David Sirota(Capitalism trumps democracy, The Seattle Times, Monday, October 6, 2008) says,

As a financial crisis became a political panic, capitalism murdered democracy (ironically, while pursuing a vaguely socialist bailout.)
...
The fiasco started, like most, with unreasonable demands. Under threat of financial meltdown, capitalism's corporate lobbyists asked our democracy to forsake its usual deliberations and hand over $700 billion of taxpayer money in less than a week.
...
CNN's Ali Velshi frothed that "the banks and the companies don't care about the intricacies" of democratic deliberations. A CEO angrily told CNN that "the money is being held hostage to the political process" as if government resources are rightfully Wall Street's>
...
Instead of responding to this meltdown by updating regulatory institutions or investing in job-creating infrastructure, the bailout gives one unelected appointee -- The Treasury secretary -- complete authority to dole out $700 billion to bank executives, with little oversight. And here's the scary part: That lurch towards dictatorship was motivated not just by crony corruption, but also by a deeper ideological shift.

On another note, this today on Lehman Brothers -

The rescue plan, now law, was so rushed that the usual congressional scrutiny is only coming now, after the fact.

"Although it comes too late to help Lehman Brothers, the so-called bailout program will have to make wrenching choices, picking winners and losers from a shattered and fragile economic landscape," said Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia, the committee's senior Republican.

Waxman said that in January, Fuld and his board were warned the company's "liquidity can disappear quite fast."

Despite that warning, he said, "Mr. Fuld depleted Lehman's capital reserves by over $10 billion through year-end bonuses, stock buybacks, and dividend payments."

Waxman quoted Fuld as saying in one document, "Don't worry" to the suggestion that executives go without bonuses.

That suggestion came from Lehman's money management subsidiary, Neuberger Berman. Waxman quoted George H. Walker, President Bush's cousin and a Lehman executive who oversaw some Neuberger Berman employees, as responding with a dismissive tone to the idea of going without bonuses.

Figures that a Bush cousin, an executive at Lehman's, brushed aside the idea of executives going without their bonuses. As one legislator said to Fuld (CEO, Lehman) "How do you sleep at night?" My thought, very well in one of his mansions, drinking his rare wine from his wine cellar, tucked in by one of his servants, basking in the glow of the almost $400 million in bonuses he collected from the company since 2000 for the mere pleasure of his presence in the corner office. Copy and paste link below for the full AP story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081006/ap_on_go_co/meltdown_lehman

'Nuff

A Labor of Love

Tom finished stringing the guitar that he made. It is a beautiful piece of craftsmanship. Take a look for yourself. Not only is it beautiful but it sounds good too.