Will Congress stop the mob mentality and accept the blame?

Little in our congressional history can match the ridiculous behavior of this past week's hearings and mob scene over these bailout bonuses, written into a contract Congress hastily made in the final months of the Bush administration and early weeks of Obama's. They have embarrassed the entire country and the new President acting like gangs of thugs looking for blood. The bonuses are "retention contracts" to save AIG--or does Congress want to destroy a company it just bought? And $165 million is pennies next to the trillions they are sprinkling around, including to the willing hands of my own wealthy suburban government here in Ohio, and the combined losses to our retirement funds and other investments. The phony outrage is cover for the fact that neither Geithner or Paulson nor Congress or Bernacke have a clue about how to "bailout" the economy--they should have just let it recover on its own with the laws and regulations already in place and stop trying to "save" bad investments and failed government programs. A decade of failed programs in the 1930s and 40s taught them nothing except how to throw good money after bad.

“WASHINGTON - Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner confirmed yesterday that his department urged Sen. Chris Dodd to water down the executive-bonus limits included in last month's stimulus bill, a move that allowed the payment of $165 million in bonuses to American International Group employees.

As the House readied legislation to crack down on the outrage-inspiring bonuses, Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat who chairs the Banking Committee, and Geithner appeared at odds over who was really responsible for Congress' failure to prevent them in the first place.

Dodd, on the defensive over a loophole that enabled the bonuses to go forward, claimed the Obama administration insisted he modify his proposal to rein in bonuses at companies getting billions of dollars in financial bailouts so that it would only apply to payments agreed to in the future - thus clearing the way for the AIG payouts.” From Combined News Services report.

I hope the President enjoyed looking silly on Jay Leno's program; I awoke for a moment and heard him stammering at one soft ball questions, and pushed "click" for the 1970s reruns. Apparently the teleprompter (i.e. TOTUS) wasn't allowed on stage. See his blog for more on Obama's ad libs and the embarrassment it causes TOTUS.

If Congress would stop acting pious

maybe I could get my trip log finished. Today WSJ confirmed the "outrageous" bonuses that members of Congress have received from AIG in the form of campaign support, with Chris Dodd being the all time leader. Also, the "bonuses" that executives at the failed Fannie and Fred have received while helping prop up people who should have never bought homes. If ever a government official should fall on his sword behind Geithner, it ought to be this phony, pious, pompous player. He's chair of the Senate banking committee and was taking money from the people he regulates. That's a wide rest room stance, don't you think? A bit more serious than overtures from a gay guy in the next stall for which "outraged" Dems tried to push out a Republican. Dodd was receiving payments from the very executives of the financial products division of AIG (the one that lost so much) he was castigating.

If Republicans are supposed to be the evil, rich guys, the greedy capitalists, why do large companies contribute so heavily to the Democrats? AIG used to distribute campaign money evenly to both parties--but since 2004 according to WSJ, like many corporations, have been swinging over to the Democrats. Capitalism doesn't need a party or a government system to survive except for the small guy--the big capitalists do well in China, in Russia and in Sweden. Al Gore is making money on this global warming scam in all countries. The idea is to make money. George Soros for all his communist drivel, is an ardent capitalist. The guys at the top of ACORN probably have fat investments and they've invested heavily in Democrats too--especially the President who is indebted to them for their success in getting out the bussed-over-state-lines vote. Power and wealth know no party loyalty.

What capitalists need in the USA are legal ways to destroy the competition, and what better way than through regulation and tricky tax codes? (cap and trade, pollution, safety, set-backs, green spaces, etc.) That's where the Democrats excel and they do it by hyping the taxpayer with phony outrage and classism, pitting lower against upper class, rich again poor. "Working people" against--who; certainly not against those who don't work--that would be the welfare class--but against the successful who paid through the nose for their educations and work 80 hours a week to get to their $250,000 a year jobs.

Campaign contributions by AIG

I haven't checked the sources, but noticed this on Newsmax about other "bonuses" received by politicians

". . . the $101,332 that the Obama campaign received [from AIG] was larger than the amount AIG donated to any other candidate except Sen. Chris Dodd, according to Opensecrets.org.

Newsmax reported on Tuesday that the Connecticut Democrat, who received $103,100 from AIG, inserted language in the $787 billion stimulus bill that allowed all bonuses awarded before February 11, 2009, to be paid to AIG executives.

AIG contributed to 18 Democratic members of the Senate in the last election cycle, including Hillary Clinton ($35,965) and Joe Biden ($19,975), and 34 Democratic House candidates.

The insurance firm also contributed $59,499 to the Republican presidential candidate, Sen. John McCain ($59,499), 14 other GOP senators and 21 Republican House candidates."

Rather than say this is bogus because Newsmax reports it, check it out. Lobbying and earmarks matter, dear fellow taxpayers, no matter which party is the recipient. But some parties, i.e., a certain party, tries to claim a holier than thou stance in that stall. So yesterday's hearings, another waste of taxpayers' dollars, could have been avoided if Chris Dodd had just been honest about why the bonuses were left in place for the bailout agreement. Next to The Barn (Barney Frank) and The Tax Cheat (Geithner), Dodd is looking like the Dopiest of the Dems.

Even so, I'm far more worried about Obama's indebtedness to George Soros and ACORN than to AIG.

More wrong headlines

Greenspan admits errors
Now maybe the Democrats can take the stand and admit their errors? Don't hold your breath. The most breathtaking statement in this article by Kara Scannel in WSJ (Kara, don't you realize your job too is going down the tubes?)

"Greenspan dodged and weaved."

The finest weavers in the country first tied us in knots and now sit unraveling our economy in Congress. Barney Frank. Chris Dodd. Barack Obama. John Kerry. Ted Kennedy. The fraternity of fixers.

Forecasting, Kara, is not the problem. There clearly was time 18 months ago to stop this blood bath. Many Republicans tried to save the sinking ship, including John McCain and George Bush, and they were blocked by accusations of racism and defeating the dreams of the poor. And you guys who write that puerile, journalism school 101 nonsense as the "news" for WSJ, NYT, WaPo and USAToday just went along, and along and along. You never dug deep, never ask questions, but if the truth did peep through, you buried it somewhere beyond paragraph 15.

For edification, Kara, please read, "Would the last honest reporter please turn out the lights"

McCain got it; Obama didn't

Remember that Chicken Little thought the sky was falling and that Foxy Woxy could save her and the other animals she had frightened. Well, meet Foxy Woxy, the one Democrats want us to elect to guard the hen house.

The bad news, the good news

Burning down the house.



The bad news is that Obama will probably be our next president; the good news is the Democrats have screwed him with the subprime crisis. He probably won't have any money to spend--but then, neither will we!