Haiku 031909

neighbor's dog
the rabbit skips on
ice water

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Recently, we read the following:

Associated Press: "Livid Democrats demand AIG return $165M bailout bonuses"

"Talking tougher by the hour, livid Democrats confronted beleaguered insurance giant AIG with an ultimatum Tuesday: Give back $165 million in post-bailout bonuses or watch Congress tax it away with emergency legislation. Republicans declared the Democrats were hardly blameless, accusing them of standing by while the bonus deal was cemented and suggesting that Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner could and should have done more…."

"Fresh details, meanwhile, pushed outrage over AIG ever higher: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo reported that 73 company employees received bonus checks of $1 million or more last Friday. This at a company that was failing so spectacularly that the government felt the need to prop it up with a $170 billion bailout....

"The financial bailout program remains politically unpopular and has been a drag on Barack Obama's new presidency, even though the plan began under his predecessor, George W. Bush. The White House is well aware of the nation's bailout fatigue — anger that hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have gone to prop up financial institutions that made poor decisions, while many others who have done no wrong pay the price…."

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And we thought:

.... On the other hand, while they rail against the AIG executives, these same Democrats (like their Republican counterparts) are keeping mum about -- and won’t give up -- their own spending bill earmarks (i.e., pork), running in the hundreds of millions of dollars. Are the mirrors in the Capitol too fogged up they can't see their own faces?....



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