Hey remember just like a couple months ago when everybody was so angry over the AIG bonuses? Get ready to be outraged all over again because duh, of course a whole bunch of people knew these bonuses were going to be awarded and they did nothing to stop it because they were too busy saving the whole financial system from ruin. Bad PR move! MORE »

Hey all you elite cocktail-sipping Georgetown dandies gumming your cucumber sandwiches at tea time: Barack Obama is NOT overexposing himself with the daily live-teevee appearances and “town halls” and Jay Leno guest spots. In fact, this is how you make Americans love you, in this country. You just show up on every teevee show, laughing weirdly, dancing, saying vaguely untrue things, smiling, etc., and then your approval ratings just go up, up, up. MORE »

Remember how the derivatives people at AIG got big bonuses last week and everyone went nuts including the House which ran around trying to tax everything? Uhh: “Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo of New York announced late Monday afternoon that 9 of the top 10 bonus recipients at the American International Group had given back their bonuses.” And 15 of the top 20, and $80 million of the total $165 million. Cuomo did this by simply threatening to subpoena and expose all of these people — at least the ones within his jurisdiction — and they all got scared and paid the money back. Pay attention, everyone! [NYT]

Populism, hurrah! There are now “Bus Tours of AIG Executives’ Mansions,” in Connecticut. Your tour guide? Chris Dodd, maybe! This will show these wretched villains! Here is the live video. [BoingBoing]

Goddammit. We began this week fueled by the fires of righteous indignation that those AIG twats were getting money, any money at all, from the government or anybody else, regardless of when it was awarded or for what purpose, because seriously what a crowd of worthless cocks. But now just several days later, our House of Representatives has gone ahead and “channeled the people’s rage” with the dumbest legislation since Terry Schiavo, which has cleverly backed all your liberal bloggers into reassessing this whole KILL THE WEALTHY MEATSTICKS approach. MORE »

Really, this rigmarole about Chris Dodd being the lyingest liar of liars who is responsible for the AIG bonuses because he took money from their contributors before the company broke down is… weak. Trite even! MORE »

Anybody else feeling some rage fatigue here? Some congressional grilling fatigue? Anyone else just want to rent out the world’s biggest Dumpster and put in it every financial goon whose name has made the front page of the New York Times in the past 24 months? Well, that’s what the ‘Tussin is for. A few squirts and you will be back riding the old Horse of Indignation once again. Join us on a journey through the dark heart of a London division of an American company that made all the money in the world disappear. MORE »

Rendered in delightful AOL wingnut allcaps. The remarks are brief and uninformative and do not go into any great detail about the bonus scandal besides saying, “Compensation, we are looking into it.” [House of Representatives (PDF)]

Poor Eddie Liddy has to work for AIG for $1 a year and spend all his time defending the doofuses who thought it was a good idea to pay their employees hundreds of millions of dollars to fail. Watch him squirm in front of the House Financial Services subcommittee in just a few minutes, as our dumb elected officials attempt to make it look like this was all his fault even thought they could have done something about this mess last year. In lieu of the usual liquor and guns, please bring to this liveblog a cheap over-the-counter cough medication of your choice and a rusty switchblade. You’ll need the real stuff when the revolution comes. UPDATE: Well bah, Liddy isn’t due to testify until the “second panel,” whatever that is, so in the meantime we will find some funny YouTubes or something else to write about.

So when the news came out about AIG spending hundreds of millions of dollars on bonuses for the incredible losers who, in running one tiny tiny segment of a huge and otherwise very stable company, managed to completely destroy the whole company and indeed the entire global economy, AIG said, “Well obviously we cannot get out of paying these bonuses because of CONTRACTS.” And it reminded us of this other time that AIG got caught spending a relatively small but nonetheless infuriating amount of taxpayer money on frivolous bullshit and started yelling CONTRACTS all over the place. MORE »

Goddammit are rich people still getting rich these days? Observe: Google’s top four executives received million-dollar-plus bonuses last year — a truly repulsive amount when everybody else in the country is starving. Wait, what’s that you say? They haven’t asked for a bailout yet? WELL BUT STILL. [AP]