After Bailout AIG Gives BONUSES!

by **Laan Yaa Mo** » March 22, 2009, 9:34 am

This analytical article speaks to the same issue in a very convincing and articulate way.

And Lord Lovin' Jaysus, Rex Murphy is from the Rock (Newfoundland) too.

Faux outrage in a time of crisis
Article Comments (109) REX MURPHY

From Saturday's Globe and Mail

March 21, 2009 at 12:00 AM EDT

So Jon Stewart has taken down Jim Cramer. Everyone knows Mr. Stewart, the late-night host of The Daily Show, but for those who do not troll the outer regions of the cable badlands, Mr. Cramer plays host to CNBC's Mad Money - a "stock picking" half hour that combines the subtlety of Jackass with the depth of Knight Rider.

Going against his Wall Street genes, Mr. Cramer voted for Barack Obama, but he got picked out by Robert Gibbs, Mr. Obama's press secretary, for a public blistering. Nonetheless, I expect it was Mr. Gibbs's tagging him as an "adversary," something he has been doing with some regularity from the White House podium - impresario Rush Limbaugh and CNBC market commentator Rick Santelli (a mere gnat to Mr. Limbaugh's condor presence) are recent examples - that called Mr. Cramer to Mr. Stewart's attention.

To the satisfaction of all right-minded people, Mr. Stewart, the smirking gladiator, demolished Mr. Cramer, the zany market man, in the so-called anchor war and was roundly celebrated on the blogs and in the wider media. "Ripped him a new one" was the term of art most frequently employed.

Some years ago, Mr. Stewart did a like number on a bow-tied pundit named Tucker Carlson - a calmer adversary than Mr. Cramer, it is true, but one with an equally low-tide profile. Mr. Stewart is getting very good at bringing down small game with cheap shot. Pretty soon, he'll work up from smirk to full grimace and take on, I dunno, that dour laptop ninja George Will.

Now, Mr. Cramer has as much responsibility for the crash of global markets as a dewdrop landing on a tsunami - so let's not mistake this "takedown" for a public service. But, hey, it's comedy, right. So a question arises. Amid the trillions of dollars currently gushing from Congress - in appropriations so large and so quickly passed that no one, not even those authorizing them, is reading the damn things - why take the fly swatter to the most insignificant bug in the room?

There's something of the same disproportion going on with the fury over these AIG bonuses. Now it is surely patented arrogance to be sucking huge bonuses out of a public bailout. But the congressional critters who are braying in outrage over this are monstrous Pharisees. They themselves had passed the bailout bill that allowed these very bonuses, and one of them, Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd, wrote in the very clause that protected them. And they themselves have stuck in 8,500 pet pork projects into the stimulus bill - that's 8,500 bonuses, if you like - at a cost of nearly $8-billion.

Is it not convenient, then, to have comedians doing an on-air version of riding irrelevant cable TV hucksters out of town on a rail, at the same time as Congress authorizes and condemns the AIG bonuses - and fattens its own members' political fortunes with nearly $8-billion of pork spending.

And where is Barack Obama in all this. Well, Mr. Obama is acting curiously. He doesn't so much preside over the crisis as act like America's chosen master of ceremonies, who appears on stage to introduce its component segments. Good patter, well-chosen appearances. There's no centre to his performance. We hear as much about the First Dog (chosen, but yet to be installed) as Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner (installed, but yet to act).

Mr. Obama drops in to everyday events more than he actually manages them. He's very cool, as always, but he lacks affect. He doesn't seem to connect with the great swirl of events around him. He shows up. He doesn't act. He likes to tour, and visit happy places. He was, for example, on Jay Leno this week. If things get really bad, I expect he'd take the centre seat of that dread couch on The View. Chat up Joy and Whoopi. The President of the United States as permanent celebrity guest. And if things go completely berserk, there'll be a Barbara Walters special, the President emoting to Babs, sandwiched between teary featurettes on OctoMom and Lindsay Lohan.

The American presidency as a four-year celebrity guest spot. "Say hello to the band, Mr. President." There's something to this. Between the concocted rage of Congress over the bonuses and the faux outrage of Jon Stewart - the Obama administration's house comic - the greatest financial crisis in generations seems to summon very little but gesture and one-liners. From those, that is, who are supposed to be managing it. Those who have lost jobs and more know it's not a TV show, not an irony fest for smartass comedians or an excuse to drop by, ever so winsomely, to the late-night celebrity massage parlours.

Is Barack Obama leading the United States at this time? Or is he just a really cool guy with all the power in the world and not a whole lot of clues about how to use it?

Well, I told you it was a good article !

by **snowman** » March 22, 2009, 12:29 pm

Yes WBU I was kidding ,very dryly. And I agree it is time for replacements BUT guess who will fund the replacements or should I say replace the the present set of crooks :evil:

by **WBU ALUM** » March 22, 2009, 9:33 pm

The media really seems to be jumping on the stories regarding political corruption. Here's one that outlines political contributions to politicians just days before the bailouts began.

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/03 ... om_ai.html

The Congressional elections in 2010 will, without question, bring change.

After Bailout AIG Gives BONUSES!

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