AIG Derangement Syndrome
Okay. We get it. Every politician in Washington wants to show They Care by bashing AIG. Which almost all of them agreed to bail out. Repeatedly. But never mind all that.
This, however, is just too much:
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.
The Republican lawmaker’s harsh comments came during an interview with Cedar Rapids, Iowa, radio station WMT. They echo remarks he has made in the past about corporate executives and public apologies, but went further in suggesting suicide.
“I suggest, you know, obviously, maybe they ought to be removed,” Grassley said. “But I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they’d follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I’m sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide.
“And in the case of the Japanese, they usually commit suicide before they make any apology.”
Bob Owens points out that Sen. Grassley took $26,250 from AIG in 2007-2008 alone. Is he ready to take a deep bow, too?
I said my piece yesterday about the gag-worthy Kabuki Theater of Outrage over AIG from its bipartisan enablers in Washington.
Ed Morrissey puts an exclamation point on it:
The nasty little secret at the center of all the outrage is that the Obama administration could have stopped the bonuses by simply stopping the bailout. They could have forced AIG into bankruptcy, which would have voided the company’s contractual compensation obligations. Instead, the Obama administration chose to inject liquidity into AIG, following the lead of the Bush administration, which had done the same thing. That kept AIG’s doors open, and therefore kept its contractual obligations to its employees intact.
Now Obama is outrageously outraged, as Allahpundit put it yesterday, but over what? A company complying with its contractual obligations? AIG has no more right to abrogate those contracts than any other employer would with its union contracts. Whether or not the compensation agreements reflect wisdom and managerial brilliance, they exist — and as a matter of law, AIG has to honor the commitments. Screeching about the bonuses now is not just futile, but a demonstration of the arrogance involved in these bailouts. If the government wants to tear up all the contracts, it will have to nationalize AIG and get Congress to approve it.
In the future, we can avoid having taxpayer dollars go to Wall Street bonuses by not bailing out private companies with taxpayer dollars.
The Beltway enablers now say they’ll stand up to corporate beggars abusing public tax dollars. But when push comes to shove, the Chicken Littles in Washington have lost their heads every time.
See what others have said
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Trackbacks
- Obama Wants You To Trust Markets and Government; But He Offers to Ignore AIG Contracts « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- Dodd Allowed AIG Bonuses; Now Ringleader to Get Them Back « Peace and Freedom Global Future
- GOP congressman introduces birth certificate bill « Jim Blazsik
- GOPMOM ALERT: AIG Bonus kerfuffle continues
- Bloodthirsty Liberal » My Outrage Can Lick Your Outrage
- Arrogance of AIG outrage | Citizen-Right
- Good Richard's Almanac
- William K. Wolfrum Chronicles » Blog Archive » No one expects a blogaround - Bonus Edition VI
- AIG: Demons or Fall Guys with Those Exec Bonuses? « Frugal Café Blog Zone
- Congress Fakes Outrage, What Are They Hiding Now? | Patriotic Dissent
- The Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for AIG? Executives should kill themselves! | Fire Andrea Mitchell!
- AIG Derangement Syndrome « The Conservative Trend
- Nightly Ramble: The Shamrock edition, because we couldn’t find any real ones | BitsBlog
- Grassley: AIG execs should kill themselves « The Daley Gator
- AIG Bonuses: Paulson, Geithner and the Money Laundering Smoke Screen | The Great Illuminator
- AIG-OBAMA: Laundering Our Money? « FactReal
- Michelle Malkin » A few words about the Freddie Mac CFO suicide
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WOW this Obama guy is BRILLIANT!!
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAA
Hmmm sounds like a standard that could be be better applied to say… washington DC???
At least the AIG execs have a contract as an excuse. What is your excuse senator????
Absolutely.
Just tell them it’s “Seppuku.” Most of these imbeciles won’t have a clue. Barney Frank will think it’s a new type of Sashimi…
Let me get is straight (I think)…so the government give away money as loans to stimulate the economy (or something), but then tell the companies how to use it?
Makes you wonder… if the Federal Government sets a precedent in being able to break those contracts… could it be used later to dissolve union contracts against their will?
(Disclaimer: While I hate the idea of government meddling in the free market, the idea of union Obama voters getting some of their own medicine appeals to my sense of justice!)
This is just another example of government fumbling. BO can be outraged all his little whiny arse, but the truth is his administration is not competent enough manage any govt program let alone control any private firm.
Tell you what, Grassley…
Convince your fellow members of Congress about their complicity in this whole mess, then start by killing off yourselves. Tonly then, following Congress’ leadership, we will discuss the AIG and their ilk’s fate.
Jeez…what a moron!
As Lantos would say:
“At least Admiral Boorda had the decency to commit suicide”
If congress had that kind of decency..we’d be minus 535 people right about now…
I’m not pleased with AIG myself, but “commit suicide”? That’s a bit over the top, Charlie G!
Sorry, but NO ONE, repeat NO ONE is too big to fail.
Too stupid not to: yes
Too corrupt not to: yes
Too feckless not to: yes
You get the picture…………
Perhaps Sen Grassley should lead by example.
What about UAW contracts, bonuses nobody went off about the excesses and payments on UAW. It seemed to me that the federal gov went out of it’s way to facilitate the union payrolls.
To AIG, you took billions from the government and then expected them NOT to have a say??? DUHHH. Basicaly, AIG was a bunch of idiots to take this money and the government were idiots for giving it to them. How is that government assigned ceo working out for ya???
Political hypocracy must be challegened and brought to light at every turn. I guess if you live long enough you see this behavior from these people time and time again that you learn to expect it. This is the administration of hope and change? Me thinks not. We know what will come out of Obama’s administration even before he acts. You have to get up pretty early in the morning to fool some of the people when you are doing the same stuff that’s been going on for years. I along with everyone else said yesterday they will villanize AIG to make themselves look righteous! No big surprise there and I hope they do not get away with it. Hypocrites every one of them.
My wife pointed this lunacy out to me last night. Ed Morrissey (above) sums it up perfectly:
No one should be getting outraged over these “bonuses.” In fact, “bonus” is probably not a good word to use for these payments. “Contractual incentives” might be a better term. As Ed Morrissey says, this is what happens when you bail out a private company.
As far as Sen. Charles Grassley, what a stupid and embarrassing thing to say; a politician like him should know better. I literally LOL’ed when I first read this story on the front page of yahoo; honestly! Suicide? What was this guy thinking?
They have already failed. Now they are just too big. Bankruptcy please and quickly.
Another example of rampant government boobery.
Is this called bait and switch? If our elected represenatives (very loose on represenatives) had nary a clue on the contractual obligations of AIG…being that the most of them are lawyers…they are too nieve to govern.
“Ye shall know them by their fruits.”
Why is the gummint surprised that the AIGangsters looted the Treasury? Don’t tell me that BHO&Co. couldn’t have restricted the bailout cash from being used to pay bonuses.
The conspiracy theorist in me says that this could have been contrived to create a wave of populist anger that Barry could then ride to stave off slipping poll numbers, and it just backfired.
But that’s crazy talk, right?
Right???
Excellent point. Why are union contracts more important than those at AIG!!!!
What “AIG” really stands for is “A-holes In Government”.
Politicians exhorting private executives to stop being so corrupt and self-absorbed.
Can we have Flight 93 back please, for another attempt?
My question, if the gobment cares so much, why didn’t they check about contractural obligations before they threw money at this company? Because it’s all a joke, that’s why. These politicans just play people. With the help of the internet we are now able to see and hear what is going on and put two and two together. It’s not as easy in this day and age to pee down someone’s back and then tell them it’s raining.
Let’s see. Congress does a half-assed job (as usual) and gives money to AIG with no restrictions. AIG pays down contractual obligations and now Congress wants to claim foul to cover up their half-assed handouts?
Misscheryl: all contracts are renegotiable. Before handing over the bailout money, the government was in a strong negotiating position to force these “geniuses” to voluntarily waive their bonuses or go bankrupt. They didn’t because that was not in the script. Now they are feigning outrage. It’s like Michelle says: Big Kabuki Play.
This is not complicated. Insolvent companies go bankrupt. “Too big to fail” is a misnomer. They are just too big and need to be taken out. The “fail” part has already happened and we are only creating a zombie economy believing that we can dodge the consequences.
Jefferson’s “little revolution once every 20 years or so” is way overdue in its “health benefits”.
Pitchforks, oh pitchforks, where are’t thou?
these bonuses are just another stimulus..if its OK for the government to dole out stimulus….why isn’t it OK for private companies??
this is another misdirection from washington dc, which is as the core of all these problems.
Time 4 America to wake up.
One can only hope that Grassley (and others like him in the executive branch) will take his own advice to AIG…
Then this country can move forward and solve our ailing economy properly.
Washington, Jefferson and their brethren are sitting up in Heaven looking down at the USA. Three words are in all their minds. The three words? “WTF?”
Grassely needs to make some kool-aid and pass it out to Frank, dood, pelosi and all.
As I understand it, this Thursday evening is the first time in history that a sitting president will appear on the Tonight Show.
And the swirling maelstrom of molecular-level electoral stupidity continues.
The day is coming when MTV and C-Span will be indistinguishable.
I see nothing wrong with AIG honoring its contractual obligations. Congress and the President ginning up anger from the American public is typical of this crowd. Their righteous indignation is only to improve their polling numbers.
Final comment on government failure to prevent the AIG bonuses. This is the same company that sent executives on a lavish “conference” after the original $170B bailout. How stupid is the government anyway?
Yeah, Grassley is over the top to say the least.
It’s unbelievable that they hand over this unbelievably huge sum of money with no specific restrictions on it’s use, then whine and cry when AIG uses 1/10th of 1% of it to pay some bonuses.
Why aren’t all these congressman not the least bit concerned about what AIG did with the other 99.9% of the money? Why????
Here we go again. A daily sequence of stupidity and unwanted legislation that has unintended consequences. Thats ,because, you Senator Grassley (R) and your hallowed hall buddies are in such a big hurry to react when obama speaks, you don’t do that thing your supposed to do. Like write the bill, deliberate, and withhold or consent. Its the deliberate thing you people keep skipping. Also it would help if your write the bill and tell your constitutes’ what your doing.
You could commit Seppuku with the AIG Executives, which would be up to you. However if you keep doing what your doing you will be setting up a circumstance in which you could commit Suicide. However that won’t solve the problem.
I have a suggestion. Resend the bill. I have never seen Washington D.C. own up and say We SCREWED UP. You just keep piling law upon law. Kinda like the Tax Code.
so while our congress is busy breaking the bank’s contracts with their mortgage holders, and trying to break aig’s contracts, why not go after the golden parachute pensions of our underpaid overworked gubmint workers. i heard yesterday the retiring s.f. fire chief was cashing out with a 200k per year pension, and a n.y.c. train engineer was walking into his sunset with 128k per year. compare to we humble worker citizens who expect to get 15 to 30k from ss for our life’s work. sounds like that working and paying taxes thing is good for those who don’t.
Has Grassley and the rest of those politicians turned down their automatic pay raises in this time of economic turmoil? Hell no. Why are they rewarding failure? Typical politician.
If only….sigh!
OT, just heard IRN news, covering the Tea Parties! They under-reported the numbers in this weekend’s march in Cinnci, but hey!
Boy, if that isn’t the pot calling the kettle black.
This administration is like children playing at ‘being president’ with no emotional maturity or intellectual or professional capabilities.
A more valid point to make at this point is what happened to the actual bailout monies. It is being reported that over 75 billion was paid out (by AIG) just to J.P. Morgan and European banks alone! Yes, that’s right, the American taxpayer bailed out European banks, and the former employer of Mr. Paulson, I believe. If Treasury felt that the 75 billion was for valid contract obligations, then the 175 million is just a drop in the bucket. Smokescreen?
Judge Napalitano was on Fox News at lunch yesterday, and pretty much placed the blame at the admisistration’s doorstep. As odious as the bonuses are, the company is contractually obliged to pay them. When the feds start to override private, legal contracts, the whole system will fall apart. The administration should have done more investigating into the obligations of AIG before handing them the money, or let them go bankrupt, but, as with the “stimulus” and the money to keep the government afloat, we were on such a catastrophic precipice of collapse, that it all HAD to be passed IMMEDIATELY with little review, or face CERTAIN FISCAL PERIL!!!!! Unfortunately for Obama, now that folks are seeing how he operates and that his only solution to anything is to spend, he’s losing credibility, as are the idiots in Congress like Pelosi, Reid, Frank and Dodd.
Not to worry, by the time Obambi and Chancellor Pelosi are done destroying what’s left of the American economy, Iraq will be mature
and prosperous enough to send troups and money to stabilize the US.
And people say Bush didn’t know what he was doing.
Clairvoyant, he is; positively, dadgummit.
Anything I can do to help Senator? From what little I know of the Japanese hari kari right after the miscreant (that would be you Senator Grassley) stabs himself an assistant lops off his head. I do not own a Japanese Sword my Miscreant Senator but I am sure I can find something suitable-a lumber ax perhaps?
Or in keeping with your Anglo Saxon heritage you could just hang yourself and save me the airfare. Anything I can do to help Dear Senator Grassley.
thou art Gorebot- leading me on like that-thanks.
Pitchforks, oh pitchforks, where art thou? Up the Senator’s WHAT?
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Keep the change-I’ll use Gorebot’s pitchfork
Exactly.
If AIG must honor their contracts, shouldn’t the loser mortgage takers honor their contracts as well?
Yup. That would be why Obama’s minions were on every Sunday news show doing PR work on his behalf. So rather than solve the country’s problems……what is Team Obama doing?…. Trying to fix it’s PR problems.
Obama’s skills revolve around his ability to BS an audience. His ideology revolves around Stalin’s vision of the world. Not a good thing for America.
to quote Doug Adams:
“Far out in the uncharted backwaters of the unfashionable end of the Western spiral arm of the galaxy lies a small unregarded yellow sun. Orbiting this, at a distance of roughly ninety million miles is an utterly insignificant little blue-green planet, whose ape descended life forms are so amazingly primitive that they still think digital watches are a pretty neat idea.
This planet has, or had, a problem, which was this.
Most of the people living on it were unhappy for pretty much of the time.
Many solutions were suggested for this problem, but most of these were largely concerned with the movements of small, green pieces of paper, which is odd, because on the whole, it wasnt the small, green pieces of paper which were unhappy.
And so the problem remained, and lots of the people were mean, and most of them were miserable, even the ones with digital watches.”
sums it all up.
Breaking just now, on FOX Business: Amid AIG Furor, Dodd Tries to Undo Bonus Protections He Put In.
Enjoy.
tpitman: for the one-thousandth time, BANKRUPTCY!!! The “we are a society of laws” argument is bogus. This is being offered by the very people who won’t enforce our immigration and border laws. Bankruptcy is a legal remedy for what is most of these problems.
Of course, it means that there will less money available in the future for political funding to our entrenched criminal class of windbags. D’oh!
This is a teachable moment. Politicians are buddies with skunks in private and criticize the smell in public. Rule of thumb: To find the truth, reverse everything they say.
I don’t think those in government are necessarily stupid. They have been able to play these games for years and kept their real motivations and agendas swept under the rug and they have been successfull at robbing the American people for years while they’ve assured themselves a place in power. It’s just getting harder to pull it off now but pull it off they will. I hope not for long.
These CLOWNS in DC are a laugh… If they had left AIG to file BANKRUPTCY, they could have VOIDED the contracts that required AIG to pay certain BONUSES to certain PEOPLE for CERTAIN performance… Now I know in brilliant DC, a CONTRACT means SQUAT… To the lawyers at AIG, the CONTRACT still matters…
No. They knew what they where doing. They knew that no matter what the outrage of today was,by tomorrow it would blow over and they will still have there bonuses.
Those in government are seriously out of control!
200K adults in this country, and we get congenital fools like Obambi, Pelosi, Reid, Fwank, Dodd, Waters, Conyers, Boxer, et al, running the nation like a three-ring circus.
I swear, somewhere in a hut in Kashmir, bin Laden’s laughing so hard that he can’t stop the goat milk from spewing out his nose.
Can’t wait to hear some of Obama’s famous one-liners. He is such a card! “Kevin, the economy is bad…it’s bad! It’s so bad, I’ve had to eat day-old arugula”!Ba da bup! This is not a President of the U.S., it is a caricature of one. I am embarrassed for him.
Senator Grassley’s stupid remark is just another example of the immaturity that is in D.C. these days. They all need to grow up! They need to stop appearing on TV comedy shows and The View and start taking care of this country. I swear, they all act like kids in a candy store with mommy and daddy’s credit cards.
I am outraged over the feigned outrage of all of this especially Barney Frank..
Such hypocrisy and inconsistency.
Where was the outrage over all the billions on pork projects that don’t even have the potential of producing INCOME unlike AIG? Where is the outrage over the imcompetency of Federal Government and their hand in all of this mess? Liddy is working for nothing this year… where is the outrage over Congress giving themselves a raise?
I couldn’t care less about the so-called bonuses. I do believe, however, that AIG should never have gotten any taxpayer “bailout” money to begin with.
I hope we Republicans can get our acts together for 2010 so that we can begin to change this farce in DC.
“If the president and the OMB [Office of Management and Budget] want to cut costs, they can start at AIG, not the VA.”
Paul Rieckhoff, executive director of Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, speaking about how the Obama administration is considering making veterans use private insurance to pay for treatment of combat and service-related injuries. The plan would be an about-face on what veterans believe is a long-standing pledge to pay for health care costs that result from their military service.
But in a White House meeting Monday, veterans groups apparently failed to persuade President Obama to take the plan off the table.
—
Obama is an idiot. The LAST people I would piss off right now are the ones tasked with protecting his sorry ass. I despise everything about this man, and I have been angry for months. But now? You bastard, do NOT mess with our American soldiers. If you need to save money, let Nancy Pelosis goddamned fish die.
This is really simple. Do the terms of the contracts between AIG and its employees justify the paying of these bonuses? If yes, pay them their bonuses. End of story. Period.
Maybe, as some have said above, the feds should think a little harder next time they give out money. (Yeah, right!)
Don’t worry, we are paying attention. BTW this means that a vet wil;l have to pay a co-pay plus deductables for a war injury.
Come on LGM, tell me again how he CARES for the troops.
Mainah, you are certainly not alone in your feelings! The detachment of this idiot is incredible. But hey, like he says “I WON!” Translation = “I WON, I’m the President, this is MY country and I will do anything damn thing I want.”
Wow. There is simply no depths to the depravity Senator Dodd won’t sink to. He EXPLICITLY airdropped a provision sheltering the bonuses into the bailout bill. Now “outraged”, he is now leading the charge to issue a bonus tax to recoup those bonuses for the taxpayer. What rank mendacity.
Momma always said: “People who live in glass houses should not throw stones.”
Aren’t these same Congressional scum taking automatic pay raises while Americans losing jobs go hungry? Didn’t our beloved Obama have the most expensive inauguration on record and isn’t he having expensive steak cocktail parties with his cronies while former homeowners are living in tent cities? Why don’t Congress and Obama resign and suicide?
not only will this hurt soldiers and their families (and I cannot even BELIEVE that we are discussing making soldiers WE sent to war pay for their OWN MEICAL CARE if they are injured) but it will inflate insurance costs for all of us, it will decimate small businesses who offer insurance to their employees and are forced to up their own rates or drop it altogether because of prexisting injuries and cost. I honestly think this is a ploy to show us all that his universal healthcare plan really IS the best choice, by forcing the American public to see our soldiers as suffering and stand to defend them. As we SHOULD. they defend US. I am so pissed right now, Im telling you, I could spit nails. HOW in the hell did we as a society choose THIS ignorant, socialist, hate mongering asshole as a leader? I would love nothing more than to see him in a roomful of injured American soldiers, telling them their families will have to suffer more than they already have because he cant afford their care, all the while winking and nodding to Nancy Pelosi and all the other pork infested JACKASSES dumb enough to think he is the second coming of Jesus Christ. Did I mention I despise this man?
people, who didn’t know that today’s modern democrat HATES the military. i learned all about that in 1973 returning from my tour in the jungle paradise to see my comrade in arms throw their uniforms, even their berets, in the trash and put on civies before leaving travis afb to go to s.f and catch their flight home. nothing has changed inover 35 years. you want americans to spit on you, go to san fran, the home of democrat peace and love, dressed in a military uniform.
Hey gang — a little OT here, but I figured I’d throw this question out. Does anyone know of a website that has graphic files of some of the wonderful signs we’ve seen at the Tea Party rallies? We’re gearing up for one here in Lexington, KY on Saturday (thanks to Leland Conway – he of the pork rind collection). I love the home-made signs. They have some of the best slogans! But I thought it would be great to have some that give the crowd a cohesive look too. Plus, maybe some people won’t bring a sign, but they’d be willing to carry one if we have extras. Does anyone know if there is anyone out there collecting the graphics on these? Thanks!
OT
The classless are inhabiting our White House.
Silver Lining?
Anger Over Firm Depletes Obama’s Political Capital
It is WaPo so most likely a lie, but one can hope.
—
Keep the change-I’ll keep my guns
Here in the south, that would be called “redneck”.
But it’s not if you’re from Chicago, I get it.
OT- Lawyer with legitimate concerns about citizenship of Barry Hussein Soetero Obama says the game is over, now that Obama has been sworn in, only Congress can remove him from office for not fulfilling the Constitutional requirements. And Pelosi likes her pet Marxist right where he is.
Back on Topic:
Another discussion of why saving AIG was really an exercise in saving Paulson’s Goldman Sachs
Obama signed the AIG bonuses into law
Does this install even one ounce of confidence in how the government can take over and manage anything???!!!
Always fumbling the ball, then blaming someone else for fumbling it and then basically fumbling it again everytime it tries to pick it up the ball again while telling everyone that it is the best at picking it up and carrying it.
They don’t think. They overreact to circumstances, then when they screw up, they overreact to their initial overreaction. Then they repeat these steps with every new self-made crisis.
And you can bet if the bonuses were for unionized members of an enterprise, and were withheld, you’d see a completely different style of outrage over the “organized shafting of working families…”
Does Pres. Obama really have any idea what he’s doing? It’s like Jimmy Carter 2.0 here.
What do these lemmings expect when no one does due diligence? Seriously, you can’t give out a load of cash and expect to attach strings ex post facto. This outrage is meant only to distract from their incompetence.
I e-mailed the windbag Senator this a.m. What a despicable statement. However, I suggested this sentiment could be applied to many of his friends in the Senate and the House. Pointed out he knows who caused this mess–Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and others who blocked any attempts to reign in these banks. I also pointed out he voted for the appointment of several people in the Admin. who made millions off these banks–and he rails at AIG bonuses. Said no wonder Repubs. get their head handed to them at election time–they are nearly all worthless.
LANCELOT: We were in the nick of time. You were in great peril.
GALAHAD: I don’t think I was.
LANCELOT: Yes, you were. You were in terrible peril.
GALAHAD: Look, let me go back in there and face the peril.
LANCELOT: No, it’s too perilous.
GALAHAD: Look, it’s my duty as a knight to sample as much peril as I can.
For Obamazoids, expressing “outrage” at AIG while having nothing to say about an administration and Congress spending their way into national oblivion is just a variation of their, “Look, over there — it’s Rush Limbaugh!” distraction tactics. The message plays well with its intended audience (i.e., fellow-Obamazoids and assorted members of the Ignorati).
Libs know that even if the economy pulls out of recession this year, any connection between that event and their power-drunken orgy of spending will be happily coincidental and not causal.
And they know that most everyone else at least suspects the same thing. That’s why they’re waving their hands frantically and shouting at AIG.
My own relatives are a good case in point: they still aren’t prepared to admit the truth about the Dear Leader and his puppet-masters Nancy & Harry, but they’ll enthusiastically castigate AIG.
And Chuck Grassley calling for others to commit suicide — while he’s been voting in lock-step with a donk agenda that is fatally poisoning our economy, our social fabric and ultimately our national existence — is chutzpah on steroids. Pity he doesn’t follow his own advice.
I keep thinking back to our earlier, and better, president from Illinois at times like this. There’s one thing he said which applies to every move Hope-a-Dope makes:
“I laugh, because I must not cry.”
And now, there’s another:
“You can fool some of the people all of the time, and all of the people some of the time, but you can’t fool all of the people all of the time.”
* Does not apply to democrats.
Congress always needs a bogeyman to show how tough they are. We see this dance far too often, yet the American electorate falls for it everytime.
How often is Big Oil called to dance in front of angry Congressional committees? Always. How often do we see the blustering and threats? All the time. Yet, how many times have Big Oil been truly “punished”? Zero.
I am not taking sides on Big Oil, just making a point. And Big Oil gets it…they sit there and take it…then its back to business as usual.
When will our fellow citizens finally get it and vote out these miserable excueses for human beings?
Cosmo #79,
Brilliant!!!! “But I’m feeling much better…”
I personally take the phrase “big oil” as seriously as “fat cats.” They’re both just comical.
For Starters, I want these people to return the money to AIG
Name Office Total Contributions
Dodd, Chris (D-CT) Senate $103,100
Obama, Barack (D-IL) Senate $101,332
McCain, John (R-AZ) Senate $59,499
Clinton, Hillary (D-NY) Senate $35,965
Baucus, Max (D-MT) Senate $24,750
Romney, Mitt (R) Pres $20,850
Biden, Joseph R Jr (D-DE) Senate $19,975
Larson, John B (D-CT) House $19,750
Sununu, John E (R-NH) Senate $18,500
Giuliani, Rudolph W (R) Pres $13,200
Kanjorski, Paul E (D-PA) House $12,000
Durbin, Dick (D-IL) Senate $11,000
Perlmutter, Edwin G (D-CO) House $10,500
Rangel, Charles B (D-NY) House $9,000
Edwards, John (D) Pres $7,850
Corker, Bob (R-TN) Senate $7,400
Smith, Chris (R-NJ) House $6,900
Out of their own damned pocket!
The upside of this mess if is that many of those employees that are being demonized and in danger of losing their bonuses were Obama supporters/donors. They will now have their eyes forcibly opened and will learn a hard lesson about why one should never vote/donate to a Democrat: they are snakes that will gladly turn on their own supporters if it will give them a net gain at the polls. Add several thousand more people that have been alienated and demonized by their own government.
I can see it now:
“DAMN IT, WHY DID YOU DO WHAT YOU WERE LEGALLY ALLOWED TO DO BY US??. HOW DARE YOU!!”
Only a politican could say those exact words and get away with it.
RogersUmp – Right you are! Just imagine. They can’t even manage the “bail-out” of ONE, just one, company. So, by all means, let’s put them in charge of health care.
The attack on AIG is a reflection of the fear in Washington. The politicians are seeing a rising tide of voter anger and they know a backlash is coming. So, what is the best thing to do? Deflect and condemn someone, anyone — and that is what is happening here. If it weren’t AIG then it would be GM. I just hope that the people who are being demonized realize that Obama and the Democrats are socialist who hate the productive capitalists.
Is anyone concerned that elected members of Congress are urging taxation as a form of PUNISHMENT? Think about that for a minute… They’re suggesting that they, the Federal Government, apply taxes to a SPECIFIC GROUP of people, simply because they don’t like the action AIG took due to their contractual obligations!
We are well and truly reaching a “bananna republic” status! This sounds like something a past king of England would do to a particular lord who’d fallen out of favor. Tax ‘em until they can’t pay, then take their lands… all legal you know.
This is truly frightening… What will they call it. The “AIG Congressional Windfall Stupidity Tax”?
Rush is saying that the AIG bonuses have been known about for over a year. Additionally the bailout bill specifically expempted any existing contractual agreements. Congress knew what was coming and they allowed it to happen. Now who is the culprit in all of this. What a sham this administration is.