those fuckers

Jesus. Just close them down already. How much shady crap do they have to do before we just say no more?

i can't help but think AIG might be the biggest SOBs to come out of this whole mess

Tell me again why public caning of these greedy bastards is not legal in the U.S.?

Translation: "Bail us out so we can make a quick buck shafting you (the average person) again. Don't worry about us; the government has proven it will bail *us* out before."

And some people wonder why the rich are thought of as inherently evil.

fuck AIG.

This is disgusting.

@JollyJumjuck: See, thats why wouldn't shouldn't have given them any money. God, Congress is fucking retarded. I would rather a public caning of Nancy Pelosi for orchestrating this giant sham.

And why haven't we just kicked out the entire management of this firm?

You know, for the "freest" democracy in the world, you sure let a lot of bullshit occur. Please America, why don't you actually hold people responsible for things? This 3 day memory thing has got to change. Raise some noise, lobby for change, and maybe even arrest some people?

@ ZukeZuke: Caning? Hell I say we drag those greedy motherfuckers out into the streets, kicking and screaming, and publicly castrate and/or labotamize every last one of them. I'm soooooo disappointed in our government for not doing anything but threatening legal action(and not with much frequency at that) against these assholes, but I'm much more disappointed in the American people for taking some kind of action. A group of people should be marching to AIG's headquarters right now with shotguns in tow claiming all hell is going to break loose when they get there.

@crouton976: ...American people for *NOT* taking some kind of action...

So if we sue AIG, would we have to pay taxes on our taxes that they are not accountable for in lobbying with?

At first, I was okay with it: okay, they've probably already paid for it, they aren't really going it's other people, other excuses.

Then I was annoyed by it: did you not see the last reports on you? The people hate you! You *need* them.

Now? I'm so mad I can't see straight. Seriously.

"unconscionable"

There's that beautiful word again. Keep it up, Congress. It's like a choir of angels.

This whole situation brings to mind a scene from Family Guy when they're searching through a landfill for something:

*Brian jumps in the garbage and begins rolling around.

Stewie: "Oh, good God man! That is disgusting!"

Brian: "I know, I hate myself, but it feels soooo good!"

In this case, Brian is obviously AIG. It seems bad loans and psychotic, if imaginary, profit is like crack to them. You know even some of the top brass must find their tactics to be "unconscionable", but they just can't bring themselves to stop. It's like the RIAA, and how the Internets are always saying these record executives are trying to relive their glory days of sex, drugs, and quality music.

can we go ahead and declare AIG the winner of the "Worst Company in America 2009"?

Just skip the whole "voting" dog-and-pony-show and get it over with.

:-)

@jodark: The AIG bailout happened long before Pelosi was involved in any Bailout plans. Not that I excuse the Bailout

This is why I said LET THEM GO UNDER

Lynch mobs are too good for them.

And you know what? I bet they're not the only ones doing it.

@crouton976: Boy, people sure are tough sitting at a computer. So when are you leading the charge?

As an individual, I don't have the influence, I mean money, to affect policy. If only there was a way to pool our resources & buy political power.

@Tank: dude, you could not have been more eloquent. Exactly my thoughts. Greedy fucking bastards.

@Froggmann: I would like to know that too. As soon as that money was loaned we should have had someone in place to oversee all of their financial records and look at just where that money was going to go. Then that person would have had the power to stop things that shouldn't have been happening form happening and firing any sort of management that was condoning or participating in this type of misuse.

That's smart business there.

@kingmanic: I totally agree. Unfortunately what we have is a government that condones anything as long as they get the money for their campaigns. Thing is, we are reaching critical mass and things are gonna change. Much to the chagrin of quite a few old school politicians. What we need is what made America great, STATESMEN, not politicians.

If we let them go under it would have caused a lot of international turmoil. Freddie & Fannie and others were putting their mortgage loans in pools and stamping a AAA rating on them, and then selling them to foreign countries, when in fact there may have only been a very small portion of the loans that were actually AAA. If I'm a foriegn country, and you sell me a pool of collateral (the homes are collateral) backed loans and tell me they are AAA when in fact they are not, then they go bad. I (the foreign nation) am not just going to count my losses when I now have homes to go claim as mine. Paulson wanted the blank check to be able to buy these pools back, to ensure that foreign nations wouldn't end up owning a lot of american property. Well that was one reason among others but I really don't have the time to go into all that right now.

@Belabras: It's not a matter of how much shady crap they can do, rather, it's about how much money they can suck from us before we publicly stone their CEO and board of directors.

@kingmanic: The problem is that no one takes action while things are happening. They pretend they don't see it -- either to protect themselves or b/c they fear confrontation -- and then whine about it later.

@Red_Eye:

Not everyone who works for a company that large is a scumbag. They don't deserve ALL deserve to suffer.

Also, this is one of those companies cited as "too big to fail." (Maybe future administrations will start being a little more aggressive about denying mergers and takeovers, or requiring selling off some operations when they happen.) Allegedly it could have taken a lot of other companies that are otherwise sound with it.

We, unfortunately, need some of the institutions that are being bailed out. Their leaders, however, have demonstrated quite ably that we do not have any need for them.

To get more on topic, I think that if we are going to make bribery illegal, than lobbying should be as well. How can you have one without the other? It obviously doesn't work. It is one of the many flaws with our system.

@Tightlines: @ tightlines: What, do you work for AIG? I mean, only someone who works for them would have the audacity to respond with such a challenging tone to my comment. AIG's actions recently have shown the whole "we're going to do what we want, how we want without fear of reprecussions from the people" attitude. It's like they are daring us to try and stop them, the same insinuation your reply carries.

Obviously, I don't mean we should literally storm AIG(though it's not a bad idea), but we as a country should be so seething mad that AIG should FEAR that it would happen, AND FUCKING STOP THEIR GREED LADEN ANTICS.

@TechnoDestructo: AIG="Too big to fail"? I think not.

AIG=EPIC fail...

@snoop-blog: I second this motion.

@snoop-blog: That along with earmarks on bills.
And yes, I'm curious to see if Congress is just going to focus on the bad shit AIG does or if they're watching all of the companies who are benefiting form the bail-out because AIG can not be the only big company trying to pull this.

Thats a reach around with a Freddie Kruger glove. Those shameless bastards.

@jodark: Pelosi orchestrated The Paulson Plan?!
Whoa, do I want what you're smoking.

@snoop-blog: Well, Obama takes no Lobbyist PAC money and has no lobbyists heading his campaign, so that's a start. (shrug)

@snoop-blog: I absolutely agree. Lobbying IS bribery.

As for this fiasco, and the many more that are undoubtedly going to come, (what is it now, one a week or something?), something must be done. The first step is to write our Senators and Representatives. If there's one thing those guys care about it's getting re-elected, and if a big enough shitstorm rises up threatening their re-election chances, they will do have to act.

Mel Martinez is my Senator, and I am pleased that he is pushing for stricter regulation and keeping tabs on these corporate assholes. But that isn't enough. More aggressive action must be taken, and it needs to happen now, before it gets to the point where AIG is the new G W Bush and people come to expect and accept their fuckups as part of everyday life.

We must strike while the iron is hot, and strike hard enough to make a dent. Otherwise, we're all screwed.

@TechnoDestructo: Allegedly it could have taken a lot of other companies that are otherwise sound with it.

Which is a lie. A solvent company could not have been taken down by an insurance company. the only companies it would take down are the ones that have debt to asset ratios greater than 1:1... You may be able to afford that 40k in credit card debt based on minimum payments, but what happens when your wife loses her job?

@crouton976: What's your plan? Or are you waiting for someone else to do it for you?

@crouton976: Can't afford to take time off of work to protest anything, might lose my job. Lose my job, will lose my health insurance. Lose my health insurance and my job... likely to go bankrupt, end up in foreclosure.

@frodo_35: These are the kinds of reports that we're getting now, while Bush is still in office.

I'm almost afraid to see what we'll find out about AIG, Fannie/Freddie, and the brokerage bunch after a real investigation is initiated...

@Froggmann: Because they all resigned long before this crisis; like 6 months ago.

@snoop-blog: We hit our debt limit this week. No one is going to loan us money again. If our economy is in the toilet, why not let the rest of the world slide down into the sewers?

We should have saved our money, or just bought up the bad mortgages through the IRS. But we should also have let these companies fail.

@YOXIM: We have the technology to record all contact with our Congressmen. If you want to talk to a Rep or a Senator, even if it's about something banal, that visit should be recorded.

The same goes for the Executive. We don't need to know the details, but there should be oversight.

I really, really hate to say it, but this is one of the times I miss Eliot Spitzer.

@lockers and failurate: I most certainly am not waiting for "someone else to do it for me". In lieu of a better plan, I have started writing everyone I can think of, including Congressmen, Senators, various members of the press, both Obama and McCain, and anyone else I can think of. I have encouraged my friends and family members to do the same, as well as publicly stated my position here. I know that it's not the best plan of action, but it's all I have for now, and until I can come up with a better one I will continue to follow it. It's kind of like learning to swim... if all you can do is kick and flail to stay above water, then by all means continue to kick and flail.

My question to you is what is YOUR plan, other than making comments from the peanut gallery? Anyone can make snide comments and try to belittle and berate others, and in the short or long run, that doesn't accomplish a damn thing.

As far as losing jobs, health care, etc. is concerned, no one is asking you to wager anything you don't want to. My only comment and request is don't bitch about the incorrageable and "unconscionable" acts of profiteering gluttons unless you are willing to sacrifice something to bring about change. It may not be much, but I sacrifice my time at least writing to people to try to accomplish something. Just as with everything in life, anything worth having requires sacrifice.

Can't afford to take time off of work to protest anything...
@failurate: I suspect that they like it that way.

Just one question:

JUST HOW MANY MORE MISUSE OF PUBLIC MONEY SCANDALS HAVE TO SURFACE BEFORE LAWMAKERS/REGULATORS WILL DO ANYTHING ABOUT AIG?

I'm sure there's a lot more going on with AIG than being reported by the mainstream media. And this seriously has to end.

@vastrightwing: I've got an idea. Let's have someone here draw up a nice form letter saying something along the lines of:

"I, as an American citizen abhore the practices of AIG, specifically, blah blah blah. I am CC'ing this letter to my congressman, state senator, etc. Our leader's decisions in this matter WILL be affecting my choices on election day."

Email Carpet-Bomb AIG's execs with it, and CC anyone in DC that should listen. (AIG's succumbed to media/public pressure, cancelling that junket for their execs). If enough of us 'individuals that don't matter' do this, I'm sure someone will hear.