Tuesday March 17, 2009, 7:54 am
Get the Ju$tice Department involved; $ubpoena all of them and all of their records.

Wednesday March 18, 2009, 1:53 am
The bonus money payout exemption was put into the stimulus bill by the Democrat controlled senate and the Obama Treasury Department.
"While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. The provision, now called “the Dodd Amendment” by the Obama Administration provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” -- which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax. “Because of negotiations with the Treasury Department and the bill Conferees, several modifications were made,” Dodd Spokesperson Kate Szostak said.
Not to mention that Dodd and Obama were the LARGEST recipients of campaign contributions from AIG. Both received over $100,000.
The fox is guarding the hen house.

Wednesday March 18, 2009, 11:41 am
These companies just plain stole all that money and called it "bonuses". Well, theft by any other name is still theft. AIG hearings are going on right now, and I've been watching them. I find it suspicious that these so-called contracts were done up a year ago, just about the time the economy was beginning to tank. Anyone can write up a contract and put any date (like a year ago) on it. This is fraud and theft in the extreme and the Justice Dept. should start making some big-time arrests.

Thursday March 19, 2009, 12:17 am
Let me say that there is no real pleasure in saying 'I told you so,' but I floated a petition way back when to say we didn't want Larry Summers in the Obama administration and he is now the special economic advisor to Obama who is protesting against getting the bonuses back, saying that the govt cannot interfere with contractual agreements between companies and their employees.

That tidbit is from a petition with today as the deadline: FireDogLake- No More Dough Till We Know Where It Goes, where you can read:

Talking points:
--Yesterday AIG paid $165 million of the $450 million it will pay this year in "retention bonuses" to executives in its Financial Services Group, the out-of-control derivatives trading arm that looted the company, destroyed its stock and contracted for huge bonuses even after they saw the risk of collapse.

--The $450 million was just a portion of the $1.2 billion AIG will pay out in bonuses across the board within a company that lost $100 billion last year.

--Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, wants to try and recover these bonuses.

--American taxpayers now own $80% of AIG after paying $173 billion to keep it afloat.

--Larry Summers says the government simply can't break the contracts that AIG had with executives, even as the Treasury is forcing auto companies to break their labor contracts as a condition of receiving TARP funds.

--Meanwhile, 21% of Americans are struggling to pay for the health care, and going without treatments they need.


Also, very important to hear, watch, read (your choice!):
Public Outcry Forces Lawmakers to Say They’ll Recoup Millions in AIG Bonuses, But Why Not the Billions in Taxpayer Bailout Funds?

The above and following from Democracy Now!: Lawmakers on Capitol Hill have responded to growing public outrage with a pledge to recoup million-dollar bonuses paid out by the bailed-out insurance giant AIG. But the hundreds of millions of dollars in bonus money pales to the billions used to bail out AIG a second time. We speak to consumer advocate Ralph Nader and economist Robert Kuttner, co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect. Kuttner says, “I think [Treasury Secretary Timothy] Geithner is probably gone within sixty days, because he has become a liability to the administration.” [includes rush transcript]