Answer truthfully or it's lights out for the puppy

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

Do you really care about this AIG bonus flap? Really? I don't mean care about one side or the other of the political games arising from it, or care about the constitutionality of this AIG bonus tax, or care about the billions and trillions in the bigger picture... not upset about something somebody said about it... I mean the AIG thing itself.

Everyone on both sides of the aisle and throughout the nation spontaneously decided to draw the line at this thing? Wow. Really?

At this point I say bring back Octo-Mom.

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Do you pay Federal Taxes?

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

12. Two points:

1) The money involved in AIG bonus-gate would not make the top 1,000 list of worst uses of federal monies this year. The beneficiaries at least did some work for AIG, which we own, so it's just some people being potentially over-paid. Bigger sums are routinely paid out for federal contracts deliverables that will never be delivered. The sum involved is not of a different magnitude than the over-run for changing the color of the seats in some fighter jet that will never be produced.

It is reasonable to be upset about wasted money in general but there's nothing so special about this particular stack of wasted money.


2) Worse abuses have come and gone on a weekly basis for six months. The reason this is a big deal is that a perfect storm of interested parties from both sides of the aisle independently decided to gin it up and created a runaway media storm with follow-on runaway pandering. Since the outrage on this particular thing has been largely manufactured, why does everyone want on the bandwagon? 90% of why this gets play as the crime of the century was that it appeared to be something that could be pinned on Obama and or congressional Dems. I dunno...

I prefer to save my outrage for important things that don't happen to be the center of a media circus fueled primarily by the media hope that this is Obama's "first scandal."

[MadBadger]

2. I couldnt get past the picture of the adorable puppy and putting its lights out.

WHat are you saying?

[elleng]

3. Seems to be concrete enough

for everyone to get minds/hands around.

[liberalmuse]

4. Yes. I'm really pissed off...

though I am sick of the stupid politicos and the MSM. I don't give a rat's ass what these dipshits think. They've been so consistently wrong why should anyone bother with them.

I'm pissed off about the bailouts, but we don't have much of a choice. I'm fucking livid beyond words about bonuses being paid with our tax dollars. I'm incredibly pissed off that we're even in this situation and that those of us who did what we could for 8 years to stave off the horrendous Bush policies didn't amount to a hill of beans. Not enough people in America gave a shit. It almost sucks more if you know the train is coming minutes before it runs you over.

I'm pissed off that people who fucked us still think that we peasants, our children, their children and their children's children should pay for their lifestyle even when they fuck up. The sense of entitlement and arrogance is absolutely mindboggling. I'm also pissed that Bush, Cheney and their fucking treasonous cabal are out trying to polish their turd of a legacy. It all galls to no end. I would love to put all these fuckers in prison, and hang some of them as well (the war criminals like Bush and Cheney--after a fair trial, of course). They're all cut of the same neocon cloth and I'm sick to death of it all.

The worst part is knowing that all these fuckers are the reason we went to war and mass murdered hundreds of thousands of human beings. That's the unforgivable part.

[Hello_Kitty]

11. Very well said.

:applause:

The bonuses aren't a "big deal" but they are adding insult to injury.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

19. I am pissed off about those things also, but not about AIG bonuses in particular

They are being used as a political symbol of a thousand things that have little to do with the particular issue.

Everyone who received the AIG pay-outs did some kind of work for a company you and I happen to own in exchange for money totaling 165 million dollars.

We have injected thousands of times that amount--literally THOUSANDS of times 165 million dollars--into AIG so that billionaire counter-parties would not lose money on their investments.

In that context, yes, the focus on this footnote to the AIG story strikes me as inappropriate, particularly because the reason we hear about it all day long is because half the outrage is coming from Republicans.

[rwheeler31]

5. I care that wall street thinks it is above the law.

[Naturyl]

6. Yes. (n/t)

[CreekDog]

7. I care about it but less than i care about the overall economy

i would not want it to be focused on to the detriment of billion dollar plans and trillion dollar economies.

[DeepBlueC]

8. I'm with you

[AndyTiedye]

9. Times Have Been Tough for This Pup Since He Lost His Job at RCA

[Touchdown]

17. He went with RCA's divorced wife JVC.

He's their mascot now.

JVC=Victor Corporation of Japan.

Years ago it was RCA Victor. They broke up, and The Japanese bought Victor. Victor invented VHS.

Logo with "Nipper" on JVC japanese site...

[Hello_Kitty]

10. What's unconstitutional about it?

No one is retroactively charging those execs with a crime. Retroactive taxes have been upheld by the SCOTUS. United States v. Carlton 1994.

[BlooInBloo]

14. The poster is using the tried-and-true method of proof called...

"proof by making shit up".

[BlooInBloo]

13. It's funny how some people have no idea what a *catalyst* is....

You may as well ask "Do you really care what seat you sit in on the bus?"

Teh stupid, continuing to burn. Sigh.


EDIT: Added "some".

[Hello_Kitty]

16. Great analogy.

:thumbsup:

[Pirate Smile]

15. I am exhausted by the Outrage right now.

It reached farcical levels.

[gristy]

18. Yes. I do.

[Pirate Smile]

20. Obama is trying to end 30 years of Reagan economics (by both parties) in his budget but

everyone is focused on the twigs and branches (let alone the trees) instead of the forest.

Perspective seems to be in short supply.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8268134

[Avalux]

21. I care about the underlying problem. AIG is a symptom -

something tangible to get people worked up into a frenzy. Too much time and effort are being spent on the AIG bonuses when the problem itself - corporate greed and government complicity - needs to be dealt with.

Bushco AND Congress shoveled taxpayer dollars into wall street bottomless pits without demanding accountability - so how does the culture change when so many are involved in it and as it seems, working so hard to stop efforts to change it?

I don't think there was a crisis back in the fall at all - TARP was the last hurrah of Buscho a big FUCK YOU to the middle class.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. no. i care about the entitlement of the wealthy, the fact that they feel the deserve it

politicians feel they deserve it, no matter what. it doesnt matter that the come has faced bankruptcy the wealthy feel entitled to staying that way. if we are not outraged about the bonus, it perpetuates this sense of entitlement

[Fire1]

23. I'm laughing but are you that fuckin desperate for an answer???

This shit is crazy!!!:rofl:

[alcibiades_mystery]

24. It's bullshit for idiots

Problems are systemic. The best result is leveraging the bonus flap to raise the marginal rate for the top bracket, which is what Obama planned to do anyway. It's just harder now for GOPers to make the usual "class warfare tax hike" arguments without sounding like douchebags. That's a good result. The bonus is itself outrageous, but no more outrageous than the fact that ANYONE has a net worth of over a billion dollars when there are children in poverty who could be fed for years on a fraction of that.

The real outrage is that we have billionaires, not that we have these obviously stupid and wrong-headed bonuses.