Monday February 2, 2009, 9:26 am
If BoA didn't receive bailout $$$, do you think they'd be spending on marketing?

Despite a near collapse that required $45 billion in federal taxpayer bailout funds, Bank of America sponsored a five day carnival-like affair just outside the Super Bowl stadium this past week as President Obama decried wasteful spending on Wall St. The event – known as the NFL Experience – was 850,000 square feet of sports games and interactive entertainment attractions for football fans and was blanketed in Bank of America logos and marketing calls to sign up for football-themed banking products.

The bank staunchly defended its sponsorship, saying it was a "business proposition" and part of its "growth strategy."

Critics blasted the spending as a serious abuse of taxpayer money.

"The prominent sponsorship of the Super Bowl says to the American people we'll take your money and then we're going to go waste it," Tom Schatz, president of Citizens Against Government Waste, a watchdog group, told ABC News.

Leading Congressional critic, Congressman Elijah Cummings, (D-MD), said, "They should know better, but obviously they don't."

According to the Bank of America, the official bank of the NFL, its NFL partnerships and product tie-tins "generate significant revenue streams." The bank said it was legally required to fulfill its contract to be an NFL sponsor and that its NFL product sales had already increased since the Experience began Jan. 24.

The bank refused to tell ABC News how much it is spending as an NFL corporate sponsor, but insiders have put the figure at close to $10 million. The NFL Experience was on top of that and was inked last summer, according to the bank.

The NFL said it was a "multi-million dollar" event and that it was also spending money to put on the event. A Super Bowl insider said the tents alone cost over $800,000.

Tickets were available for purchase for between $12.50 and $18.50, with proceeds from ticket sales going to local youth initiatives. It was the 18th year for the "interactive fan festival" and the first that Bank of America has sponsored it.

Bailout Dollars Shouldn't Go to Super Bowl Sponsorship, Critic Says

Schatz said that deal or no deal, the event sponsorship should have been abdicated once the bank took billions in bailout funds.

"The Super Bowl is a big deal, but it's a bigger deal that Bank of America is being bailed out by the America taxpayers," Schatz said. "This is an exceptional year and it's a time to say we're not going to do business as usual. We're going to say no, we're going to show some restraint, and we're going to cut back on something that really isn't absolutely necessary."

GM, another NFL corporate sponsor and bailout recipient, said it scaled back this year and didn't send any executives to the big game or schedule dealer meetings around it.

Tuesday February 3, 2009, 3:34 pm
Our way of life is over. Our profligate consumption is finished.
Our children will never have the standard of living we had.

And poverty and despair will sweep across the landscape like
a plague.

This is the bleak future.

http://www.commondreams.org/view/2009/02/02-0

Thursday February 5, 2009, 11:24 am
Yes, here in the US we applaud those who can pull themselves up from the gutter. We also blame those who can't. we are the "rugged individualists" who want the freedom to make it or not. In short, we blame the victim. We have been so busy blaming the vicitim since at least the 1980s that noone has paid attention to the man behind the curtain.

Why aren't most of us at the superbowl? We can't afford it. We didn't work hard enough. We blame ourselves while those who have robbed us blind get to play.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 11:24 am
Not that I have ever wanted to go the Superbowl.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 11:27 am
Many people I know are boycotting these banks with HIGH RIDING and WILD CEOs who are being paid 350 times the salary of an ordinary person.

One young woman I met on the train told me she opened 8,000 new accounts in one month, so many people are moving their money out of Citibank, Welss Fargo, Bank of America ... they'll get the message, right in their WALLET, if we boycott them and then they'll fire these HIGH ON THE HOG CEOs and they might start to care about ordinary Americans.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 11:30 am
Good idea. I have always used a local credit union, though my mortgage is with a big bank.

Thursday February 5, 2009, 11:51 am
America is at an historic divide between rulers and rulees and the rulees are restless. Remember, question authority, trust your values, seek alternatives, break away, stand up for your beliefs, and swim against the current!

Friday February 6, 2009, 4:40 pm
NYC Madam: Wall St. Johns Paid For Sex With Corporate Cards

Tuesday February 10, 2009, 11:51 am
Protestors Picket Bank CEO's Homes, Offices


A new kind of street warfare is breaking out against Wall Street titans - and it's happening on their lawns and outside their lobbies too. A corps of agitators - financed, ironically, with federal-stimulus millions - is making the rounds of suburban mans

Friday February 13, 2009, 8:50 pm
Stimulus Package Contains Strict New Restrictions On Executive Pay
Goes Beyond What Obama Admin Imposed Last Week