Listen to your Aunt Susan
By SusanUnPC on March 19, 2009 at 6:00 AM in Current Affairs
Almost everything I wrote yesterday here about the AIG outrage is told in the interview below by Greta Van Susteran (except that I didn’t factor in Neva-da-da Harry and Frisco* Fancy Nancy and Connect T. Cut Chris (?), who — Susan hits forehead with hand — I should have immediately, intuitively surmised were, but of course, in the thick of it). All the endless discussion on cable TV news can be distilled, as I did yesterday in my “Just The Facts, Barack” piece (minus H. & N.).
And now Chris Dodd is falling on his sword? WTF? By reversing what he said yesterday (“Oh no, it wasn’t I”) to Wednesday’s (“Oh yes, it was I, but it was really my staff”)? There are 180 degrees of separation between the first untruthiness and the second untruthiness. Frankly, I believe Dodd is covering up for someone, perhaps those someones (Frisco Fancy and Neva-da-da) in Fox reporter Jim Angle’s version described below.
P.S. There’s a poll for you to tell us who you think did it (just like “Clue”!) at the end of this story.
Tim Geithner’s, Nancy Pelosi’s and Harry Reid’s fingerprints are all over the crime scene. Yet most of the cable TV news hosts, especially the irrationally exuberant such as Chris Matthews, are acting like we need CSI to solve the crime. Oy.
(And who removed the amendment freezing bonuses at $100,000? I’d bet he was a “Christopher Moltisanti” type — i.e., one of the crafty, manipulative staffers who murder “problems” and chop up bodies for work for Tony Soprano, er Tim Geithner or Harry Reid or Nancy Pelosi. Can’t you see The Sopranos‘ Christopher dippin’ the head of a young Congressional committee staffer in the toilet, and blowing lies in his ears? The bonus freeze was obviously a “problem” (BUT WHY? DONATIONS PROMISED?) for someone, and Christopher, er the Congressional staffer, “took out” the “problem.” (It was whispered solely to the highest-up, trusted “lieutenants” who are the Congressional leaders’ muscle and who know how to commit the crime, i.e. how to sneak in and alter the bill’s language without anyone ever seeing until it’s too late.
ACTUALLY, according to Jim Angle on Fox News’s Special Report with Brett Baier, the dirty deletion was done during a Congressional leadership meeting of Harry and Nancy, minus the Committee members. I’d love to show Angle’s great report to you, but Fox is getting “cute” with its videos and not sharing as many of their hard news segments on video. (However, below, I’m posting one fascinating “Web only” Baier video with Angle, Charles Krauthammer and other panelists. That video is long-ish but OH SO WORTH YOUR WHILE.)
Here are more background and somewhat explanatory videos on the entire AIG mess:
Special Report with Brett Baier & Charles Krauthammer & Jim Angle (23 minutes long, but worth it)
Excellent report with Carl Cameron, but Angle’s report ended up on the cutting room floor, which is just a shame
So, who rubbed out the bonus freeze portion of the bill?
VOTE HERE:
Loading ...* Footnote: I purposely used the nickname “Frisco” for San Francisco because all who live around and in that beautiful city DESPISE that nickname. When I went to Stanford, one of the “rules” all freshmen were taught early on was never to use “Frisco” and to instead say, “The City.” But Nancy Pelosi and her Frisco friends deserve to be irritated, so I’m breaking the “rule.”
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I remember Nancy Pelosi saying that if they changed the bill she would see that it didn’t pass when it came back to the House. Since this was left in, I’m sure it was antsy Nancy who was responsible. Dodd is covering up for her because he is afraid of her. He has so many bones buried that he’s afraid she’ll unmask him. (as if we hadn’t been on to him since Fannie and Freddie)
Nancy Pelosi’s rant before that crowd of immigrants in San Francisco should be enough to get her recalled, but it won’t because she was preaching to the choir. To call our immigrant laws un-American was way over the line. What’s wrong with our immigration laws is the fact that they’re aren’t being enforced. Standing in front of a bunch of people holding signs saying “we’re Mexican and this is our Homeland”, she was deliberately preaching that it is all right to break American laws. She should be tarred and feathered and run out of the country on a rail.
I agree with you but I’m on a personal campaign to stop the casual “tarred and feathered” usage once I found out it was torture that killed you.
Well, what I’m hearing on Morning Joe and picking up off memeordandum.com, is that Dodd has changed his position – yet again. He now says the Obama admin told him to put that provision into the stimulus package. So, who the hell knows what to believe? I think we can start to wonder what Obama knew and when he knew it.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen such brazen hypocrisy and flat-out lying from our elected officials. What a sad display we’re seeing in Washington right now.
Oh – I voted “other” in the poll because I think the Obama administration (Teasury/Geithner) is guilty here.
I did the same thing!
I heard Dodd taking responsibility for inserting that clause to allow for retention bonuses. He may have been instructed by Geithner to do that.
And I do not fault Dodd or anyone for doing that.
My problem with this mess is the following:
1. Has anyone of these feeble minded politicians including Captain Clueless taken the time to first understand what exactly these bonuses are for and for whom?
2. After watching this House Keystone Cop Committee hearing of Liddy, do these people understand the implications of their threats and potential actions?
The idea of these retention bonuses were NOT to reward certain employees for past behavior but to convince them to stay with the company, close out a particular book of business and for that be contracted with a bonus.
By contracting them to do this it assured that AIG would not go under and would become financially viable to payback American taxpayers.
Instead, you have morons like Barney Frank and Gary Ackerman who know zero about the banking business (or any businesss for that matter) threatening to place the American taxpayers in a situation of legal risk by committing breach of contract, abusing tax law to committ arbitrary and capricious acts against these employees, and, if Frank has his way, committ defamation of character.
Right now this self-righteous false moral outrage is over $164 million which is only 0.02% of the over $700 billion these loose cannons recklessly rammed through Congress without ever reading or allowing Americans to examine.
If I am one of these retained employees and this Keystone Cop Committee is successful in abusing the law and slandering me, I will gladly accept that, retain a top attorney and sue the government for FAR more than the bonus I was to receive, which I will get in the end anyway.
So is there any journalist out there with a brain and informing their readers about the consequences of what this committee is doing before they cost us more than they already have?
It appears to have been a rather sophisticated form of blackmail. Per WSJ the 6.4 mil went to Cassano’s “top deputy”. Two other flunkys who worked directly for Cassano got biggies also. The contracts were negotiated to firewall the employees of this horror from the losses and ensured prior “profitable” year figures would be used. Also according to the WSJ the brand new director presented this to the board of Financial Products which never bothered to vote or approve.
I agree that this is a pittance in the overall bailout but it is clearly symptomatic of how US corporations have been run. This is fiduciary malfeasance and the people in this unit were flirting with fraud if not directly committing it. Cuomo needs to talk to them under oath.
You’re still talking about a small percentage of even the $164 million which should be investigated.
But what they are doing is placing us at risk by lumping all in the same bucket when, in fact, most bonuses were proper, legal and are binding.
The problem is that none of these Congressional idiots either took to time to understand the details or they do know and are lying to get out from behind the politics of it.
But even if some of these contracts were done under false pretense, it only shows how incompetent the government is in running a business. Just because a contract may be morally wrong it is still a contract.
Why is it the responsibility of the American taxpayer, that doesn’t have a contract with AIG, to pay these bonuses?
This is a bunch of crap.
Why is it the responsibility of the American taxpayer? Because the Democratic leadership agreed to give AIG the money to do it and inserted the clause to allow it.
termo: you miss the point. If the bonuses are to retain vital employees, why do we pay bonuses to executives who have bankrupted their companies and run them into the ground AND melted down the whole world economy?
This is the problem. Your repeating the slanderous bullshit that Obama and the Keystone Cop Committee have been telling the press.
Why don’t you read what Liddy said these bonuses were for as a starting point.
Democratic leaders are trying to use this as a diversionary tactic because they do not know what these bonuses are for or are lying about them.
If certain executives received bonuses under false pretense then they should be made to pay them back. But I will take the word of an acomplished and successful CEO who was brought in for $1.00/year to salvage AIG over the word of any of those Democratic morons who never bothered to read the $700 million stimulus bill in the first place.
The direction this is taking will cost American taxpayers far more money in the end than the $164 million in bonuses.
If anyone wants to know more about this financial mess go to: Slate.com
Termo, I’m glad that you haven’t swallowed the mock administration generated hype on this issue.
When I was watching Liddy get grilled in a Congressional magic act where they cleanse themselves of all responsibiliy and heap it onto a convenient scapegoat, I observed some stark hypocrisy. Liddy and AIG were accused of sneaking the bonuses through in the dark of night, (a Saturday night it seems), the implication being that they knew they were doing something WRONG. The bastards! Of course, Liddy rather credibly explained that the Fed. has known about the bonuses for some time, because they have been sitting in on board meetings ever since AIG accepted bailout money. Nobody blew whistles until the half informed, perpetually starved for propaganda, public got wind of it after the fact. Only then did the politicians climb all over each other in a game of “King of the Outrage Hill”. The huge hypocrisy that struck me was that the very same members of congress that are outraged over AIG supposedly sneaking 165 million in Fed. loan money to employees in the dark of night, are the same Congressmen who just recently snuck through an unread 780 billion bill (4,727 times larger than the retention bonuses) essentially in the dark of night. And the taxpayers (We the People) are expected to bend over and say “Thankyou sir, may we have another?”.
Perfect!
I was watching some of the lawyers on the committee making threats that they are going expose the AIG people who took bonuses in an effort to tar them (defamation of character) or to go back and legislate a rescinding of those bonuses (breach of contract) or legislating a 90% tax on only the bonuses of those people (arbitrary and capriscious abuse of the tax law which would never hold up with the Supreme Court).
And then to watch Captain Clueless go on the campaign trail (what is he running for now?) and do what he does every day – point fingers away from him – you wonder what were the voters thinking?
Nancy Pelosi really is running this country now.
Just like in the old Chicago pay to play. The recipients of these bonuses are probably the ones behind ensuring they stayed in. They are the big money donors to Dodd and Obama. So would it really surprize anyone?!?
That’s what I was thinking. Faux outrage and simultaneous bribe-taking would not surprise me. I think it was Dodd. He and Obama both got their bonuses. I even think Dodd’s whole pathetic campaign for President was just laundering his dirty campaign contributions. Why would Dodd think he even had a chance at POTUS or even really want the job? No term limits for Senators.
Hey, I told you so…..can you imagine that all this mess would be happening in a Clinton administration? Barry Soetoro is on a disconnect, picking college basketball teams and still running for president in California. WTF…we are not in a election cycle…what the H*ll was that all about????
I blamed the GD corrupt corporate controlled MSM for this mess. Now, they are acting outraged…just like the Congressional hypocrites! Barry Soetoro w/o his teleprompter, a charlaton. MSM should invesigate his personal behavior….that was a comment made by an AIG employee wile being interviewed by a Fox reporter>>> Funny, can we say Larry Sinclair!
I think there should be an ‘all of the above plus more’ choice on the above poll.
The only video I can get is the one with Brett Baier & Charles Krauthammer & Jim Angle. And I mr Angle seeming to say “poor Geithner, he is working all alone with no help”.
What that tells me is that qualified people know what is going on and won’t touch Obama and Geithner with a ten foot pool.
Politicians buy into the bonus game because they are bought by the same culture that perpetuates the myth of the need for incredible bonuses to employees for just breathing. I remember Sec Paulson making some statement about the not placing any conditions on the bailout money because execs might not take the money. Somehow this delusion made sense because they have convinced themselves of this as being “normal”. It is somewhat amazing that we had to be nice and generous to those who almost destroyed the economy as not to offend them because then they would really destroy the entire world economy.
My guess is that Paulson and Geitner, being a product of this culture, never though twice about the ramifications of paying out huge bonuses to failed executives as being generally improper and not how the rest of the world operates. The politicians get their money from those from this culture, so why should they bite that proverbial hands that feeds them?
In psychiatry this is termed a Follie a deux
Politicians buy into the bonus game because they are bought by the same culture that perpetuates the delusion of the need for incredible bonuses to employees for just breathing. I remember Sec. Paulson making some statement about the not placing any conditions on the bailout money because execs might not take the money. Somehow this delusion made sense because they have convinced themselves of this as being “normal”. It is somewhat amazing that we had to be nice and generous to those who almost destroyed the world economy as not to offend them because then they would really destroy the entire world economy.
My guess is that Paulson and Geitner, being a product of this delusion, never though twice about the ramifications of paying out huge bonuses to failed executives as being generally improper and not how the rest of the world operates. The politicians get their money from those in this delusional system, so why should they bite that proverbial hands that feeds them?
In psychiatry this is termed a “Folie a deux”. Where a delusional belief is shared by more than one person. They actually want to call this a Wall Street Culture as somehow we should be “culturally sensitive” to their world view. Sorry it isn’t happening.
though=thought
My “other” vote on who is responsible refers to Barack Obama. Dodd, Pelosi, Geitner and Reid are also culpable, but Dodd clearly stated that White House staffers insisted on the change.
Am I the only one who is getting tired of hearing Obama, Reid, Pelosi and Frank trying to blame George Bush for everything that has happened since the beginning of time? Bush made many mistakes, but this one is owned lock stock and barrel by Obama’s Democratic administration and Congress.
My thoughts, exactly.
mamatx: unfortunately Bush started the blame game. He and his constituents were perfectly happy to blame every minute thing on Bill Clinton. It got really tiresome. There wasn’t even any justification for it. The country was in great shape under Clinton. Republicans didn’t like abortion, but there was nothing unsound about the country politically and economically.
The worst legacy of the George W. Bush administration is that it set a precedence for corruption and obfuscating that the Democrats are now emulating to line their own pockets.
Yup.
Pelosi rammed this bill through with no questions allowed.
There is no doubt, in my mind, about who is calling ALL the shots on the Hill!
She carefully selected a token, who she could manipulate, and pushed him into the White House.
Then Emanuel was put in place as the go-between.
My money is on her knowing every time BO takes a leak!
They all did it.They are all corrupted ! And my choice is all ! Nasty devils
Okay, another DEAR GOD…Please get rid of that moron Chris Dodd and that PIG Barney Frank too. For the love of CHRIST what is WRONG with this country that people like this have taken it over to destroy it? I’m so depressed and angry I don’t know how to have a moment of frigging joy anymore.
This segment should go viral… I agree with all the points that Beck pulls out on the AIG scandal in this segment… everyone needs to understand this and realize that getting outraged at the bonuses is getting angry at the wrong part of this scandal….
Glenn Beck on AIG Part 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qprM303-D7w
This link overlaps so you can watch where the previous link leaves off:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rWbKKydgj_o
Thank God for Beck. I have always liked him. I learned about Mexicans getting our Social Security from him. No one else tell you this stuff. By the way, did anyone know about this??? My scumbag ex told me about it. He loves Obama and will get his handouts how ever he can and so is now buying a house. He lost the one he had after just 6 months so I hope he see the clause in there that he must stay 3 years for the tax credit. $8,000???? Doesn’t that seem a little bit large to you?????
http://homebuying.about.com/od/buyingahome/a/21808_taxcredit.htm
Question, how do we pay for all this stuff if only the richest are paying taxes????
I think I understand the issue now.
These ‘bonuses’ were for staff to stay on and wind-down business in their unit, even though their job was going was going to be eliminated at the end.
I’ve seen this used at companies I work for. If you don’t extend bonuses like this, you risk the highly probably situation of the staff jumping ship before the important work is complete.
It’s not a performance bonus as the media portrays it.
You might question whether the amount of some of the bonuses are excessive, but the people are entitled to these bonuses.
So now the Democrats are in a political bind. They privately realize the bonuses were needed, but they can’t explain to the American people why in a neat soundbite. So now they have to engage in the theater that they are going to stop the bonuses, when in the end, they won’t. If they pass anything, it will lack teeth.
My spouse and I have been going back and forth on this one…
Whether these execs are entitled to these bonuses is, IMO, questionable. In failing or struggling businesses, or during tough economic times, many workers have been compelled to renegotiate their contracts, based on the reality that the money the employer relies on to meet contractual obligations to employees is simply not there. In my neck of the woods, for example, public parks employees have agreed to reduction in work hours in order to save jobs. Other private corporations are implementing shorter work weeks or job sharing to save money and jobs.
It seems to me that AIG has treated our money like “found money” and has, indeed, demonstrated a strong sense of entitlement in contrast with an appropriate sense of responsibility and accountability to the taxpayers and the common good. The common good was, after all, the justification for the distribution of these “bailouts”.
tarma: I agree. It makes me think of industries (auto) who get in trouble and they call in all the workers and tell them, if you want to save the company, if you want to have a job, you have to take a pay cut, you have to have your benefits cut. So, why don’t executives have to make sacrifices when they are the very people who have run their company into the ground?
I also voted Other because I think Obama took out the bonus freeze.
I disagree with your view AIG.
What you are saying is that Liddy, at $1.00/year and no equity stake, is intentionally deceiving all of us for some unexplained financial gain.
i really wish unintelligent demagogues like Barney Frank, Gary Ackerman, and the rest of those Keystone Cops faking moral outrage would start with facts and try to first learn the nature of these contracts before placing the country at legal risk in court by breaching contracts, abusing the tax law, and defaming people.
Actually, I never said that. In fact, I was impressed by Mr. Liddy’s decorum during the recent congressional hearings, including his respectful attitude towards protesters. I also commend him for what appears to be a genuine concern for the wellbeing of the AIG employees (or former employees) who have been subjected to the most vile and malicious threats that I’ve heard since the Democratic primaries.
While Mr. Liddy is, indeed, now receiving only $1 per year, his 2007 pay package alone totaled $20.26 million (from Allstate, according to data compiled by Bloomberg). Just a point of info
Susan: your article makes me think I should be watching Greta Van Sustern. I liked her during the campaigns. She seems quite sensible. I don’t trust any other news person on tv. Lou Dobbs has even gotten a little weird.
Greta Van Susteren was great throughout the election and one of the only journalists reporting fairly. She is likewise now taking the administration to task. She does not use vitriol and she is very fair and sensible. She certainly gave Hillary a fair shake which is more than I can say for 90% of them out there.
HB has a post about this
http://hillbuzz.wordpress.com/2009/03/19/mystery-of-the-day-who-was-dodds-accomplice-with-the-aig-business/
Since Dodd wasn’t in the room when it was slid in, who was his accomplice? the 3 Senators were Harry Reid, Max Baucus, and Daniel Inouye
some of the comments seem to suggest Baucus, (who is pretty high on the list of recieving contributions from AIG)
This makes me think even more Baucus was the one http://tinyurl.com/czjbs2
The Washington Post, meanwhile, is selling deputy chief of staff Jim Messina as Rahm Emanuel’s Rahm Emanuel. Messina, says The Post, has become the administration’s “Fixer.” The guy who solves your political problems. He may end up solving a lot of them.
Messina came to the Obama campaign from Max Baucus’s office, where he served as chief of staff. Baucus, as chairman of the Finance Committee, has jurisdiction over health care, taxes, trade, Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, unemployment benefits, and potentially even carbon pricing. Aside from Harry Reid and arguably Susan Collins, he’s probably the most important senator to Obama’s agenda. An easy relationship between the two men will prove crucial. Just ask Bill Clinton, whose enmity with finance chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan was the stuff of legend. Operatives from that time have argued to me that Clinton’s greatest mistake in the 1994 health care reform came in 1993, when he took then-Finance Chair Lloyd Bentsen as Treasury Secretary and let Moynihan ascend to the post.
Profiled in The Post, Messina goes out of his way to praise Baucus. “Max is like my father. I’m closer to Max than I am almost anyone,” he says. Elsewhere, he describes their “father-son” relationship. Every two weeks, The Post reports, Baucus and Messina meet at Bistro Bis for wine and dinner. And it’s already had impact: When Geithner’s nomination began to founder, Messina was dispatched to explain the situation to Baucus. Geithner quickly received Baucus’s full support.
Indeed, either by accident or by design, the White House now employs the chiefs of staff for the two most jurisdictionally powerful congressmen. Deputy chief of staff Messina, of course, from Baucus’s office. And director of legislative affairs Phil Schiliro, from Henry Waxman’s office. The White House will not find itself scrambling some night to find either chairman’s cell phone number.
People, people. What’s a few billion here and there?
Obama’s gonna be on Leno. Drink your koolaide and relax.
We just paid for ONE really expensive punching bag!
AIG was transparent about these bonuses, and several people KNEW they would be paid!
Once their benefactors get caught red-handed, they fake out-rage! B.S.!
All of you lowly workers should think twice about spending your $12 a week.
You will next on the refund list!
As sickening as the AGI business is–the dramatic outrage, the finger-pointing and Barney Frank dogging Liddy [who is making what? On dollar to be pummeled by Congress] and the demand of names of the guilty with all the huffing and puffing and righteous indignation that Frank can muster–guess what?
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac have a bonus program,too. The Wall Street Journal reports retention bonuses that will run to 2010 and including:
“All Senior Vice Presidents and Executive Vice Presidents who are employees of Freddie Mac on or after September 1, 2008 are eligible to participate in the program.”
See article here:
http://hotair.com/archives/2009/03/18/hey-guess-who-else-has-an-executive-retention-bonus-plan/
with a followup at the Wall Street Journal.
You can’t make this stuff up. And Obama thinks we’re all going to hug that 3.55 trillion dollar budget?? Dream on!
[...] to read more on the AIG issue, SusanUnPC also has a good piece on the recent AIG/Dodd stuff, “Listen To Your Aunt Susan.” There is also Larry Doyle’s, “AIG Contracts A Brain Freeze,” are just a couple of other [...]