I have become, reluctantly numb

It is with mild trepidation that I wade in on the AIG debacle. I’m no economist so I don’t pretend to understand the nuances and compelexities of what is obviously a convoluted and contentious imbroglio.

Honestly, I wouldn’t pretend to grasp the big picture any better.

Still there are things worth pointing out. I think it’s at least salient to acknowledge that the $165 million in bonuses aren’t even equivalent to the drop in ones pants following a protracted post urinal dance after an evening of copious beer consumption. The number itself really is much ado about nearly nothing. Having said that, I’m well aware the symbolism here as an indicator of the morally as well as ethically bereft culture we fight simultaneously along side the fiduciary malfeasance and overt criminality.

AIG sucks. Fucking crooks.

Through the revolving door only to emerge on the other side. I’m not at all comfortable with this idea of an excise tax, whereby the Feds step in and take 91% of the contractually (pre-Obama) negotiated bonuses. It’s a little too punitive for me. It feels knee jerk and it solves not a goddamn thing.

What I’m trying to tell you here is this is a soap opera on a black and white TV while a live championship rodeo is full tilt boogie less than a hundred yards away.

With most of us so broke we can only afford to pay attention, should we spend any more currency on this? It’s two beetles fighting in a jar while the Hindenburg slow motion bellyflops on the tarmac of infamy. Sheezus!

Our Man said “it’s on me”. He implied that it’s done and he’ll do his best to mitigate it but there are far bigger fish to fry so shut up and stay with me here. Fifty some days in and I’m losing you people? To this? $165 million is a fiftieth of what we spend before the first drop of Presidential urine plummets into the cool water of an ornate White House throne on any given morning.

In a perfect world, AIG would have been so ashamed, we’d never hear of any of this. They would have shut these greasy executives down. They’d have said “in a pig’s ass”, or, “here’s a keychain, how’s the wife and kids?”. They would have been asked to leave early in every sense of the word.

Yeah right. These are the 30 to 1 geniuses. If these assholes own calculators they don’t use them.

So anyway, that didn’t happen.

Did the Obama administration drop the ball? I suppose they did. So many people, Republicans in particular, are so loathsomely and disingenuously concerned that our man has his fingers in too many pies. He’s trying too hard. He needs to focus. Most of those very same people are flogging this issue like the carcass is even breathing.

The AIG bonuses are simply not germane to the big picture. Our man understands that. Many of you do not.

Just about everything I see this man do speaks to me of both short and long term thinking. The big picture.

Sixty days. He’s been here sixty days.

Today, Obama talked to Iran, “the promise of a new beginning” that is “grounded in mutual respect.” -CNN

That gesture of profound reason and noble diplomacy was eclipsed by Sarah Palin pissing and moaning that Obama had compared his bowling skills to that of a Special Olympian on The Tonight Show”.

“This was a degrading remark about our world’s most precious and unique people, coming from the most powerful position in the world,” Palin said in a statement released Friday. -CNN

I will leave you with this: What’s the difference between Sarah Palin’s mouth and her vagina? Only one retarded thing has come out of her vagina.

Drinks for my friends.

13 Responses to “I have become, reluctantly numb”

  • admin:

    P.S.

    I swear on my Dali Euphonia MS5s that I wrote this blog before watching Realtime with Bill Maher.

    I’m just that good.

  • Twaddle:

    Until Palin can show me a “special Olympian that has owled a 300 game, I could give a shit less. I have worked with special needs kids, and there accomplishments are only accomplishments relative to their condition. Not to diminuate the positive effects of said accomplishments, but if anything, he was empathizing.
    I doubt that anyone in teh financial/ insurance sector deserves any bonuses during these times. Since when did a bonus become an entitlement… Still, how was the administration to know that AIG would act so irrresponsible?

  • U ? Authority:

    It’s all hocus-pocus.
    Congress, both houses are pocketing so much of the bailout/rescue, that U can’t even afford to pay attention to what is really going down.
    Look, look over there, it’s “them”, they’re the bad people !
    Strike Back, run the baks 4-15-09, make these tight wads put the money into the economy, they’ll have to to keep operations open.
    U know the banks won’t close, the bank stands to take a loss, won’t happen.

  • Misty:

    Yeah, you really are excellente’. On another subject the reason the Neo/cons achieve power is because they will unite without thought, on almost any given subject. Then there are Demo politicians, that are really Republicans like Fienstien, and Pelosi. They look at demographics, then just play politics, to get elected. I am tending to look at politicians like Arnold Swartznegger our, CA governor with a bit of respect. He attempted to go against the Ca Prison Guard Union, which Grey Davis had made a sweet heart deal with. The labor Unions for Municipal workers, is powerful and they drive up the cost of living. When one examines their productivity output, they usually don’t really perform. Their benefits, are seriously top heavy. I will look for fiscally conservative Republican for our next governor. People are talking Fienstien. Would Ho’s only know that they is Ho’s!

  • Stravingus:

    I’m happy to see the citizens of Connecticut playing the passive/aggressive tour bus game with the AIG CEOs. If it takes a little bit of fear to awaken a sense of ethics, then that’s fine by me.

    Sometimes people need a gun held to their head, or at least the thought of a Molotov Cocktail Happy Hour to see the light.

    Scare people into acting right. I guess it worked for Stalin.

    Too bad the “pursuit of life, liberty and happiness” combined with “all men created equal” concept doesn’t really work with Wall Street. Somewhere along the line, it became “MY life, MY liberty, and the pursuit of MY happiness…fuck everyone else.”

    I’m also continuously amazed at the “thin skin” game played in the politically correct world. C-SPAN is constantly jaw-dropping in 2009. I am beginning to believe that many Special Olympians have found their way into politics.

    Actually, let me take that back.
    Every Down’s Syndromian I know is HONEST.
    Many politicians CHOOSE to be retarded.

    Ready to nail Obama to a cross after two months, when they just sat through eight years of Bush/Cheney. I imagine we won’t even know the magnitude of the damage done by those two until thirty years from now.

    WOW.

    Can you make my cocktail a DOUBLE?

  • Good read, good points.
    I basically 2nd what Stravingus wrote.
    AIG is just a made-public example of what we know to be wrong with many of these companies/systems.

    Given a choice, I’d rather be termed a ‘special olympian’ than likened to GW.
    Yeah…..

  • admin:

    Twaddle, let us eat cake.

  • admin:

    U ? Authority

    I have a bank account and believe there is literally a dollar in it.

  • admin:

    Misty,

    Interesting points. Nice vitriol.

  • admin:

    Stravingus

    The citizens of Connecticut will be an anectdote.

    The culture of Wall Street and much of the financial sector is riddled wirh cancer and it may very well bring the world to her knees.

    You wrote: “Every Down’s Syndromian I know is HONEST.
    Many politicians CHOOSE to be retarded.” -that rocks.

  • admin:

    Lafang,

    “Given a choice, I’d rather be termed a ’special olympian’ than likened to GW.
    Yeah…..”

    Next 🙂

  • Twaddle:

    I’ll take a fat slice with a pale ale to wash it down!

  • admin:

    coming right up!

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