Rabid Liberal Rants

And I thought “Change” was coming. Sounds like it’s the same ‘ol situation. Obama and pals are “outraged” at the bonuses AIG execs received while at the same time they’ve taken the company to the crapper. However, Senator Dodd, as well as Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner knew about the bonus payouts, new they were going out, and even approved of it.

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, D-Connecticut, who originally proposed the executive compensation provision, said he did not include the exemption clause, which said new rules “shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009.” In an interview with CNN, Dodd denied inserting that exemption at the 11th hour, and insisted he doesn’t know how it got there. “When I wrote the language there was no such language like that,” Dodd told CNN Tuesday. Multiple Senate Democratic leadership sources also deny knowing how the exemption got into the bill. The mystery isn’t just how what was effectively a protection for AIG was put into the stimulus bill — it’s also how a provision intended to prevent AIG from giving executive bonuses, was taken out. The Senate passed a bipartisan amendment proposed by Sen. Olympia Snowe, R- Maine, and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Oregon, that would have taxed bonuses on any company getting federal bailout dollars, if the company didn’t pay back the bonus money to the government. But the idea was stripped from the stimulus bill during hurried, closed-door negotiations with the White House and House of Representatives.

And yet now they’re “Outraged”. Senator Grassley even suggested that the AIG execs to commit suicide.

Look, AIG shouldn’t have given out bonuses after claiming that they needed a bailout. But at the same time, we have a bunch of charlatans in Washington who are feigning outrage just because the American people who elected these jokers are outraged. They are reactive instead of being proactive.

This is getting ridiculous. I ranted about the bailouts before, I’ll do it again. SAY NO TO THE BAILOUTS! Now, Pelosi and Co. want to bailout the auto industry. ARE THEY FREAKIN’ NUTS!?! The most sensible comment on this actually came out of the White House:

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said the companies had made business decisions “over the years that have led to this situation, but we have gone as far as we can with the authority Congress has given in order to help industries.”

While companies like Toyota and Honda were spending money on R&D for efficient, hybrid cars, Detroit was spending money on Hummers and gas guzzling trucks.

Now they want help because they made some stupid choices over the years. And to top it off, the freakin Dems are pushing for this bailout. This, on top of the news that the Wallstreet companies that received bailout money continue to spend on huge bonuses. In fact, news came out that AIG, which recently asked for more bailout money, spent $343,000 for a two day “sales meeting” at luxury resort in Arizona:

The company had already been under criticism for spending $440,000 for a weeklong retreat in California for top-performing insurance agents, just days after the U.S. government stepped in to save the company with a $85 billion taxpayer-funded loan.

But on Monday, ABC News reported on an AIG sales meeting at a luxury resort in Phoenix last week that cost $343,000.

“AIG made significant efforts to disguise the conference, making sure there were no AIG logos or signs anywhere on the property.

“An AIG spokesperson said there were no AIG markers in order to minimize signage costs and to lower the company’s profile.

“A hotel employee told (ABC), ‘We can’t even say the word (AIG).’”

Write to your representive in Congress and tell them NO MORE TAXPAYER FUNDED BAILOUTS!

A nice, continuosly updated, writeup on Wikipedia on the current Financial Meltdown and Credit Crisis can be found here.

From The Nation:

Under Paulson’s draft plan, Congress and the courts would have been barred from reviewing or challenging his moves to stabilize financial markets — effectively making him the nation’s economic czar. That’s not just a dangerous power grab for economic and politic reasons. It’s unconstitutional.

So basically, this man is looking for $700 Billion in taxpayer money, to do whatever he thinks is right, without anyone having the ability to review or question his plan and whatever else he does with the money. ARE YOU FREAKIN” NUTS?!? This is just as bad as giving the President the blank check for the Iraq War! They’re looking for another blank check. I hope and pray this proposal does not go through and sensible minds prevail in Congress. Don’t get pushed and bullied into approving this plan.

And yet the folks that caused this mess, the CEOs and managers and those that made the loans, all go away scott free with their golden parachutes. Anybody who knowingly made loans to people who they knew wouldn’t be able to afford them, should be going to jail. Period.

Why were all these people able to do what the did? The answer is Deregulation. If you have some time, here’s a good writeup on the history of this mess.