Month: March 2009

March 19, 2009 – Megan and I tried to convince Kyle to do some of his “Heath Ledger as the Joker” impressions before launching into his masculine rendition of “My Heart Will Go On,” but he would have none of it. In this first clip, my boy perseveres after the background song and mike go out on him mid-tune… Other kids might have wilted, but Kyle never chokes when he’s got a mike in his hand and an adoring crowd to perform for…

After hosing off some overheating equipment and the rabid fans during intermission, “old brown eyes” came out for an encore.

Last weekend Kyle and I blurred through a magical history tour from Philadelphia’s Independence Hall to the US Capitol and all of these in between:

• Liberty Bell
• White House (smaller than I imagined)
• WWII Memorial
• Lincoln Memorial
• Vietnam Memorial
• Washington Monument
• Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
• National Gallery of Art

We also toured a variety of culinary haunts from Pat’s King of Steak in South Philly to Sam and Harry’s steakhouse in DC. Neither Sam nor Harry allow jeans in their house of beef, so the boy and I cabbed it to a Men’s Wearhouse for khaki’s, dress shirt and a belt. Given Kyle’s conscientious objector status regarding clothes shopping, it wasn’t a bad trip. Mr. Daley was very agreeable, and after a brief fitting of the pants, we were out of there.

It was a great learning experience for Kyle and while he may not understand the subtlety of the moving Vietnam wall, he was patient and respectful through several walking hours on Saturday. Once the pain from his fallen arches got to be too much, my hand went up and a taxi arrived. We took it easy on the misty Sunday, limiting our stroll to the Capitol and the National Gallery of Art. The Capitol seemed pretty deserted for a nation teetering on the economic abyss. Shouldn’t these people be pulling all nighters? I mean working, not chasing interns… The National Gallery was pretty uninspiring compared to other “great” museums like the Met and MFA, but the wire sculptures of Alexander Calder did stand out.

As we wound our way along the curving, stone wall lined Delaware turnpike headed back to West Chester, PA, I asked Kyle what he thought of DC. “Dad, my feet hurt.”

“Too big to fail” has and now “We the People,” are funding yet another “Puppet Regime,” this time not some foreign dictator who’s “our son of a bitch,” but the cartel of financial corporations who still have the leverage to bring the economy down. Really, the term should be “too rich to fail,” because how else can one explain how AIG, 80% owned by US taxpayers (The tab is $170B so far), can pay out $100M in bonuses because, as their CEO says, they are legally obligated, yet the United Auto Workers, a union representing blue-collar employees, had to make contract concessions before GM could receive a mere $25B of bailout bucks?

Just like OPEC could cripple our economy by shutting off oil as they did in the early 70’s, our financial institutions can do worse damage by shutting off the money. The “leverage” these men (well, the leadership of these rackets are dominated by men) have is that they are already rich, and will not lose homes to foreclosure or health insurance from job loss. They are all set financially and likely lack the conscience to give a damn if the rest of us circle the financial drain together, including President Obama. AIG, at the summit of arrogance, has so far refused to open their books to federal auditors. This company would not exist if not for taxpayer money, yet they know their people on the inside like Tim Geithner and Larry Summers will help keep the curtains closed while propping up their puppet theaters.

Over the years, many of the puppets we supported like the Shah of Iran and Diem and Thieu in Vietnam caused the United States incalculable losses of human life and treasure. We’re still paying for the sins of our puppet the Shah and he was ousted 30 years ago. There’s no telling how much our US corporate puppets will cost us. We haven’t even ousted them yet.

As usual this morning, I was awoken by the sound of a cry. Like a man reaching for a lost “phantom limb,” Madison jumped to my mind, but in about the fraction it takes for a judge to sign divorce papers, I realized it was not Maddy ringing the breakfast bell, but a cat howling through these thousands of joyless square feet.

Divorce rips at the fabric of family with a raw, jagged cut that takes forever to heal and if it ever does, the torn area never functions quite the same way again. This house once had a heart and a little girls voice pumping it with love. About a year ago, the heat of fire from an outdoor grill took a neighbors house here. Now its wooden neighbor is dying from “internal injuries.”

Having experienced the shredding of my family fabric twice, once as a child and once as a protagonist, I can report it is excruciating and destructive. Regardless of circumstances, and without assigning blame, now seeing loved one tortured by the phantom cries of a child and spouse gone makes my scars ache.

I’ve written here, here, here and here about how we need to fundamentally change “the American Way” or risk losing it all.

The weather is too nice to sit here and write yet another “the American sky is falling” post, but read Tom Friedman’s article in today’s New York Times. Here’s a taste:

‘What if the crisis of 2008 represents something much more fundamental than a deep recession? What if it’s telling us that the whole growth model we created over the last 50 years is simply unsustainable economically and ecologically and that 2008 was when we hit the wall — when Mother Nature and the market both said: “No more.”’

“It’s simple. We kill the bat.” That’s one of Kyle’s excellent “Heath Leger as the Joker” impressions and a metaphor for the financial crisis. The “bat” in this case is fear, and unless we smash the erratically flying source of what scares us, we’ll stay hiding under a blanket hoping it just goes away.

In my opinion we “kill the bat” by exposing the core that controls the over sized wings fanning our fear. I’ve killed a couple bats in my day (sorry PETA) and once stunned with a tennis racket, they shrink from a menacing black wingspan to a more manageable, egg sized rodent.

What we need is for Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to insist on an open-book management analysis of the books (the real ones, too) of any financial institution receiving bailout money. We keep hearing about how no one really knows the scope of the bad assets on the books of these giants, and until we do, taxpayers will be asked to continue throwing the dollars of our great-grandchildren to these theives of today. We’ll also remain financially paralyzed from the uncertainty.

Yeah, thieves. It amazes me that that Republicans can call the stimulus plan and new budget “the greatest transfer of wealth” in our history, when the richest of the rich have been broadening the gap between them and us for the last 30 years.

It’s simple, Citi, BOA and AIG, et al… Open the Kimono so we can “kill the bat” or you don’t get another dime and you do get nationalized.