Why Half the Story?

AP via Yahoo News tells part of the story:

FAIRFIELD, Conn. – A busload of activists representing working- and middle-class families paid visits Saturday to the lavish homes of American International Group executives to protest the tens of millions of dollars in bonuses awarded by the struggling insurance company after it received a massive federal bailout.

About 40 protesters sought to urge AIG executives who received a portion of the $165 million in bonuses to do more to help families.

"We think $165 million could be used in a more appropriate way to keep people in their homes, create more jobs and health care," said Emeline Bravo-Blackport, a gardener.

No word on if they're going to protest Obama's income from the latest book; couldn't that money be better spent buying infant formula, for the children?

But that's not the interesting bit. Sure, they're just wackos-on-a-bus, but look whose wackos they are:

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A small political party angry at bonuses paid to staff of bailed out insurance giant American International Group is organizing a bus tour to the Connecticut homes of several AIG executives.

"We're all mad at AIG," the Connecticut Working Families Party, a small liberal party, said on its Web site, inviting people to sign up for its "Lifestyles of the Rich and Infamous" bus tour and a rally at the company's Wilton, Connecticut, headquarters, on Saturday.

And who are the Working Families Party? The Wiki say:

New York's Working Families Party was first organized in 1998 by a coalition of labor unions, ACORN and other community organizations, members of the now-inactive national New Party, and a variety of public interest groups. The party blends a culture of political organizing with unionism, 1960s idealism, and tactical pragmatism.

ACORN? You mean Obama's ACORN? So, just to be clear, Obama's Geithner instructed Dodd, (rightly, by the way) to be sure that the AIG bonuses were paid. Then, (a shocked, shocked!) Obama showed his indignation that the bonuses were paid. Then Obama's ACORN handed the torches out to the angry villagers?

Then Obama announces:

The Obama administration will call for increased oversight of executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies as part of a sweeping plan to overhaul financial regulation, government officials said.

The outlines of the plan are expected to be unveiled this week in preparation for President Barack Obama's first foreign summit meeting in early April.

Increasing oversight of executive pay has been under consideration for some time, but the decision was made in recent days as public fury over bonuses has spilled into the regulatory effort.

So the outrage Obama engineered has forced him to institute government control of executive pay.

Is Obama creating American Kulaks?

Where I Stand on Ché

By the Way

Smart? Stupid? Diabolical?

The thought popped into my head when the AIG bonuses first came to light: Could the government have approved the bonuses in order to gin up hatred and class envy? It seems a little far fetched, and paranoid, really. But now I see on Drudge:

Obama will call for increased oversight of 'executive pay at all banks, Wall Street firms and possibly other companies' as part of sweeping plan to 'overhaul financial regulation', NY TIMES reporting Sunday, newsroom sources tell DRUDGE... Developing...

"Other companies" too? Not, by the way, that I think the government should have a role in regulating anyone's compensation. But what "other companies" might that be? Just wherever the government has determined that someone is getting paid too much? Is this now America, where if you apply yourself, and work hard, you can grow-up to be anything you want -- within the parameters of what the government will allow?

Anyway, looking for a quote I'd lost track of, I just googled: "government control of the economy is"

first three:

• "government control of the economy is, in fact, wasteful of resources and unable to respond effectively to change."
• "government control of the economy is incompatible with freedom and participation. [B] socialism and freedom can be combined in theory but not in ..."
• "Government control of the economy is what got us into this mess and having more control of the economy is just going to make things worse. ..."

OK, you could expect those. But even better are the suggestions at the bottom of the page:

karl marx economy
the great depression economy
soviet union economy
minimum wage economy

And I don't have to say, do I, that "government control of the economy is" -- socialism?

Just the Headline

Obama asks Americans not to expect too much from him
Way, waaaaay, ahead of you.

Dodd Invited to White House

As soon as Michelle finishes digging the grave.

Let the Asking Nicely Begin!

From Danger Room:

The White House has released a video message to the Iranian people timed to coincide with the Persian holiday of Nowruz. The video, released with subtitles in Farsi, is an appeal by President Barack Obama for "new beginnings" in the U.S.-Iranian relationship. And it includes a direct message to leadership in Tehran: Turn away from nukes.

From the transcript:

The United States wants the Islamic Republic of Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations. You have that right -- but it comes with real responsibilities, and that place cannot be reached through terror or arms, but rather through peaceful actions that demonstrate the true greatness of the Iranian people and civilization. And the measure of that greatness is not the capacity to destroy, it is your demonstrated ability to build and create.

Submit now, Iran, or we're opening up a can of pretty-please. We mean it!

***Update: Well here's a shocker.

TEHRAN, Iran – The Iranian government brushed aside a Persian New Year's message Friday from President Barack Obama offering to resolve years of hostility, saying it wants concrete change from Washington before it's ready to enter a dialogue.

Obama released the video to coincide with the major Iranian festival of Nowruz, a 12-day holiday that marks the arrival of spring and the beginning of the new year on the Persian calendar. In the video, which has Farsi subtitles, Obama said the U.S. is prepared to end the strained relations if Tehran tones down its combative rhetoric.

Who could have predicted that?

OK, so abandon that. Let's focus on wishing for perpetual motion machines and unicorns.

Whoops

Exhibit A:

A nightclub boss who wrote a letter to police denying that drug use was rife in her club has lost her license, after cops found that the letter itself was covered in cocaine.

Pauline Terry wrote the letter in January, denying that Club Compass in Ramsgate, Kent was a haven for drug taking. A police raid on the venue had found 'huge' traces of various Class A drugs in the bar and toilets, including cocaine, heroin and ecstasy.

A police source said: ' It does us a lot of favours when the licencee, in defending her nightclub on drug allegations, sends in a letter covered in cocaine.'

Class Warfare

OK, so the House decided on a 90% tax rate for those retention bonuses. Meaning - when it comes to rich people, contracts aren't really contracts anymore. So if you're an exec at Freddie Mac, what incentive do you have to stay on, risking congressional wrath, and confiscatory taxes? From Bloomberg:

March 18 (Bloomberg) -- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac’s federal regulator defended million-dollar bonuses for executives at the government-run mortgage finance companies as lawmakers prepared legislation that would recoup most of the money.

Fannie awarded a total of $4.4 million in retention bonuses to four of its top six executives in 2008, to be paid out through February, according to a company filing with regulators on Feb. 26.

“It’s a reasonable and well-thought-out plan,” James Lockhart, director of the Federal Housing Finance Agency, said today after a speech in Washington. Keeping personnel of Fannie and Freddie Mac was critical when the two mortgage-finance companies were taken over in September, he said. He said the extra money is necessary to protect taxpayers’ investment in the mortgage-finance companies.

Well, but retention bonuses don't mean anything anymore. So, for a fraction of a percent in savings, we no longer have this tool, the retention bonus, to keep the best available people in place. These people are in charge of getting maximum value out of these government "investments". Are we happy to have second string players in charge?

And apart from the question of getting and keeping the most competent people; there's the question of experience. Don't we need people familiar with the structure and policies of these GSE's to lead the recovery effort? I'm certainly not qualified, but if I was, I'd think long and hard about taking a job with such incredible responsibility for a salary that was forever renegotiable.

The Kiss

**Update: Keeping it real... you may have to clicabiggen to read this one: