What to Do About "Mad as Hell"

I'd also like to see the names of the thousands of brokers, and "financial analysts," who, worldwide, not only in the US and Europe, grew fat off the backs of the rest of us, published in large print every day in every national newspaper. Name them. Every one.

Name the AIG execs, middle management, etc. Name the former CEOs who were bought off by golden parachutes courtesy of the taxpayers.

Name the government officers, congressman, etc., and precisely how much money they made from this.

Name the BOA, Citygroup, etc., scoundrels every day.

Name them, and keep their names in the news. Name the recipient of every excessive bonus, etc.

FINALLY, name Chopra for the opportunistic charlatan that he is. Enough bullsh*t.

Yes, and then some. On http://CoinAge.me it is all very well explained flaws, solution and the new technical and processing requirements, and the current state. Awesome solution presented their everyone needs to understand it. It is time for the one click revolution and a mass currency conversion.

http://oneclickrevolution.com

AIG executives and Wall Street bankers, with help from their bought and paid for corrupt government high officials, are economic terrorists looting the American taxpayers.

So..... I was wondering, why is blind shorting still legal in most situations and what was that Cox amendment all about back in '03?

Well, Chopra, you left me speechless.

Thank you for expressing so succinctly and clearly my exact thoughts.

I have the bad feeling yours will be words lost in the wind.

It's not the bonuses, STUPID! It's the whole attitude and environment in financial corporations, the government agencies responsible to monitor and control such abuses, and the Congress and the Administration in bed and in collusion with these despicable business practices. The mock rage by the Congressman that tore down the rules to enable these abuses, the administrations turning a blind eye for the last 30 years aiding and abetting these criminal activities, the FED and SEC who abrogated their responsibility to prevent such abuses need to all be held responsible and a populist rebellion needs to get all of these people exposed and terminated! From Geitner, to Summers, to Volker to Liddy, from Bernanke to Schapiro, from every Wall street executive to every "institutional" investor agent, from Bank officials to rating agencies, from wall street members to CNBC pundits...ALL need to be charged with wholesale and malicious fraud, held responsible, be terminated from their employment, and where appropriate serve some jail time!
In any case, we cannot depend on the band leaders to fix the mess they are part of! A new group is needed, untainted by the greed and mindset that has allowed these immoral and imprudent activities to flourish; indeed the current generation has applauded these actions as appropriate and beneficial when in fact they have been pernicious and criminal!

Paganplace - you can call Clinton a conservative democrat, but does that term also apply to Barney Frank?

Oh, and I'm not a Republican, so I'm not trying to share the blame. I'm giving it to both parties that I detest.

As for AIG's support not being idealogical, you are correct. The loopholes and deregulation given to banks have nothing to do with ideology, they have to do with campaign donations. Ideology is only important to Republicans and Democrats in that it allows them to fool the American public into believing that there's a significant difference between the actions of the two parties.

The Republicans have cleverly fooled people into believing that they are the party of smaller government, when the government grew more under their watch than it ever had before.

""Paganplace - the Democrats and Clinton are responsible for not just the de-regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the blocking of attempts to regulate them.""

That's the claim now. What a difference a year makes.

No question that Clinton was a conservative Democrat, of course, he was nearly as corporate as the Republican administrations, ....the only difference being he was more competent and less ideological about it.

While you were worried about whether or not he got some on the side, I had this thing about watching.

"And the banking industry has been deregulated both by Republicans and Democrats. Both Republicans and Democrats are complicit in the deregulation of the financial industry,"

Ah... 'Both were complicit,' sure sign the Republicans are trying to pass off blame after all the GOP railroading and such.

I watched that, too.

It's also a big part of why I voted for Obama, rather than Hillary. Certainly, claiming this is Obama's doing is disingenuous.

And when Republicans start wanting to 'share the blame' ...you know they're backpedalling off the 'Imperial Presidency' control they gloried in.

" and have taken huge sums in campaign donations from them. Before you singularly blame Republicans, try taking a look at the campaign donations from banks like AIG, and see who they funded the most. "

Frankly, 'Banks like that' are not ideological, they're just trying to pick a 'winner' and *hedge,* like they do the rest of their business.

A good column. Thanks, Mr.Chopra.

As an update to my previous post...

The democratic controlled Congress, more specifically the Senate, in it's continually infinite wisdom, is pushing a bill to impose a 35% excise tax on all bonus amounts over $50,000. This tax would be assessed against ALL individuals employed by financial institutions that were given Tarp funds.

Congratulations to the Senate for finding a way to circumvent Due Process.

Let's hope & pray that members of the House are smarter than they appear and derail this ridiculous piece of legislature.

Paganplace - the Democrats and Clinton are responsible for not just the de-regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, but the blocking of attempts to regulate them.

And the banking industry has been deregulated both by Republicans and Democrats. Both Republicans and Democrats are complicit in the deregulation of the financial industry, and have taken huge sums in campaign donations from them. Before you singularly blame Republicans, try taking a look at the campaign donations from banks like AIG, and see who they funded the most.

Who did they give the most to?
#1 Chris Dodd
#2 Barack Obama
#3 John McCain
#4 Hilary Clinton
#5 Max Baucus
#6 Mitt Romeny
#7 Joseph Biden
etc.

Total amount given to Republicans: $142,792
Total amount given to Democrats: $442,926

Mr. Chopra,

It seems kind of catty to refer to the current administration as "adult," implying that the former was childish. If you disagreed with their policies -- and apparently you did -- fine. In many cases, I did as well. But when are we going to be able to have a conversation about the here and now without the President, his staff, and the pundits all resorting to just kicking President Bush as opposed to defending their own policy proposals on their merits? Every time you do that, you demean the discourse. Some day, Obama will be a former President and I hope whomever takes over for him -- Democrat or Republican -- has a better go to line than, "I inherited this" etc. Is that "Change"?

I think the real danger in all this anger is how the Republican party, responsible for the deregulation and subsidization of all this reckless speculation and such, is trying to say Obama's responsible for it, when, really, he's the guy that's dealing with the hostage situation he was left with.

Not to mention the manufactured outrage the corporate media that told everyone to buy into the real estate bubble for years ...is trying to direct against our neighbors who believed them.

This is *still* about the Bush administration privatizing profit for the few and putting all the risk on the public.

They've been looting us for a long time, and left things set up for fatcats to crash the financial system for the insurance.

Definitely, anger is appropriate to feel, but this is really like a hostage situation. The 'cops' need to keep a cool head.

"Know this, my beloved brothers: let every person be quick to hear, slow to speak, slow to anger;
for the anger of man does not produce the righteousness that God requires."

Jas.1.19-20

Well, after denial comes anger--righteous or otherwise. But I always get a little suspicious when the watchmen, who should have been watching the city, get "angry" at wrong-doers.

Or they blame 'greed'--which is a constant, for Chrissake--you can't blame a debacle like the one we're in on a constant. Where we they when all this malfeasance was going on? There was an *entire* bureau dedicated to regulating FNMA and FRE. They failed anyway. AIG was out of control, any market participant knew that, but the good and the great looked the other way, until it blew up.

This debacle was caused by bad economics and an especially bad market theory--the EMH--practiced by Alan Greenspan no less for twenty years! Pols on both sides nodded and blessed their Maestro. Britain even knighted him! Now--all of a sudden-- they and Deepak Chopra are righteously angry. Well, according to the Old Testament and I guess D Chopra, it good to be angry. But my faith--I'm a Catholic--has always held anger to be a sin, one of the seven deadly. Anyway, anger, righteous or not, is not going to help anyone solve this mess.

I am afraid no one is left who understands moral relativism.

I like Deepak Chopra, and I like this column.

I certainly don't understand how this happened with AIG, what little I have gained is from listening to NPR. But also, I live in Michigan, so it chafes a little more here, I think.

The morality in this country has been declining for quite some time, yet we chose to ignore the issues until it has hit what we seem to worship the most "money". We have seen the decline in pharmaceutical companies that fail to fully disclose research results because of greed. We have seen it with insurance companies when they refuse to pay for life saving tests or procedures. We have seen it in education where the emphasis is on test scores rather than knowledge.
We tend to claim ignorance until it hits are own pockets. It is time to stop and take responsibility for our actions or lack of action (act of omission).

Duchess,

"So if they don't reject the payment, or turn it back in, then the tax option ought to be used"

You can't arbitrarily use the Internal Revenue Tax Code to tax a specific company or a group of individuals. It's both immoral and unlawful. The "tax option" is not a consideration. Period.

Our problems will not go away by getting rid of Geithner or Larry Summers or other Wallstreeters. Our system is rotten at the top. We need to find another way to elect our Congressmen, Senators and other politicians. Now, it is primarily a play of money which comes mostly from the Wallstreet bankers. In our Congress, this money flow is called "contribution". Our professional politicians have failed us; we need "citizen" law makers. A constitutional amendment for term-limits of politicians at all levels will go long way to detoxify the system. Remember, a symbiotic relationship between our politicians and our money changers is the cause of most of our economic problem.

Readers who do not find Mr. Chopra's analysis of profound moral crisis in America compelling should read the works of the late Christopher Lasch. As a cultural critic of the American mass consumption economy, and its accompanying "culture of narcissism", Lasch was without equal as a dissector of what ails America. His final book, completed fourteen years ago, says it all: "The Revolt of the Elites and the Betrayal of Democracy". We have much work to do, and must man the barricades, both in our souls and in the public square.

Duchess,

I'm assuming you're also mad as H*ll for President Obama to allow the AIG bonuses in the first place?

Perhaps if our current President hadn't been so concerned about yelling "the sky is falling, the sky is falling!" he would have heeded the insight given to him by the Attorney General of New York.

Or maybe if President Obama spent less time schmoozing with ESPN and filling out brackets?

Well, yes, I'm MAD AS HELL!

4000 Americans dead. 100k Iraqis dead. Kids living in depleted uranium.

I am furious about 8 years of cost and loss for a war that never should have been. There's 30,000 and more severely wounded who deserve life time care.

I am furious about a POTUS that is not interested in finding out who outed a CIA agent.

I am furious about a POTUS that would authorize torture.

I am furious about a VP that can leave such a failed presidency, with the country broke and broken and brag about 30 years of unprecedented household wealth - the fat cats - the extremely wealthy that got the huge tax cuts, while this country went broke.

I am furious that when we need the republicans to help with getting us out of the mess they made, they can stand there and chirp the same old failed line: TAX CUTS! TAX CUTS! TAX CUTS!

Bonuses for the failures? Sorts goes along with rewarding Bush and Cheney for destroying this country - more Brownie you're doin' a heckofa job mentality.

What emerges from Deepak Chopra's column this week tells us that Deepak is an intuitive adherent of Thomistic natural law doctrine. Who would have guessed?

Whoa Nelly - CNN is pointing out they knew of bonuses last November. I believe the WHite House did not fully understand their nature and felt they would be canceled with all the foo foo rah about bonuses floating.

I blame the press for this:

Rush Limbaugh was leading the charge yesterday - claiming these are retention bonuses, paid to someone who has lost their job in order to keep their services til that section of the company shut down.

But, we forced the auto workers to renegotiate their contract.

So if they don't reject the payment, or turn it back in, then the tax option ought to be used.

Deepak Chopra has had a habit recently of getting the vegetarians and moon-children very agitated with articles about things that easily make them emotional - Cheney, The Environment, "Corporate Greed"

What gives Deepak? Are you starting a political party?

Justice exists in the world only because good people choose to fight injustice. The debacle on Wall Street happened because people who'd been put in place to prevent injustice failed to do so. I wrote a piece I'd like to offer for this discussion called "Evil Triumphs When Good People Do Nothing" on my own blog at http://happinessinthisworld.com.

I think we have the right to be "mad as hell" and demand the gov't to ignore any contracts promising bonuses. It is OUR tax money. I think we would not be going over Capitalism if the gov't forces some regulations on these companies that got us in this mess.
We can't expect the President to fix everything. It's time for the citizens to protest and demand some answer from this companies, the gov't is just the middle man.

Where is the righteous anger against the congressmen and women who make all this possible?

Where is the tar and feathers with Dodd's name on them?

Now there is some chinese bookwork coming where AIG gives back the bonus money - from the billions Obama gave them? How does that work?

Where is the change? I suppose there is some change - there has been more thievery and malfeasance of office in the first 50 days than in the 8 years of Bush.

I have been disheartened by the trend in ethical behavior overall, at both the personal and corporate level. I had been the chair of my VA facility's ethics advisory committee for 9 years. I went on a deployment and when I returned I was no longer the chair. The ethics format had been changed at the national, Central Office level. It is now an Integrated Ethics advisory. It is supposed to also deal with our business practices as well as clinical. That's good. However, the new structure makes the facility director the chair of the committee. Isn't that just putting the fox in charge of the hen house? This is your government at work. I was appalled. And my fears have been confirmed. Sr management have made some financial decisions on projects that have put our budget in a deficit. The solution? No more travel funds for anyone. That means no training for staff off grounds. I am the sr chaplain at this facility. Our National chaplain leadership convocation is in April and I am one of the speakers on deployment and redeployment issues facing vets and families. But I can't go becasue of the halt to travel funds. So I am frustrated. AIG is evil, but a govt attacking a company, when their own internal sense of ethics and morality is this skewed, is bizaare at the least, and very disheartening.

America's morality and "greatness" is exemplified by the plight of the Native American and the ecological destruction of this land. Keep your money, keep your guns, and keep the change as well. One who is completely disconnected from the natural world is lost.

To Jon and Sally

Where is the banner with the picture of George Bush eclipsing the Pope?

I loved that .. it showed your true stripes .. GOP before GOD.

I guess times have changed...

Morality is a personal thing, an emotional thing and a local thing.

How can we expect international companies that manage international portfolios to worry about something as minor as "morals" when there are margins to maintain.

There is no emotional connection between AIG, Citibank, BOA, or any large corporation and what is happening in Peoria, IL. So what interest does anyone have in doing the right thing when the only "moralist" is an impotent IRS or SEC Auditor?

These mega corporations obviously do not serve the individuals needs. We need to downsize them to the point that they do care about what is happening in their sphere of influence.. Keep it local and keep it moral.

It's a Wonderful Life .. Did George Baily care about his town? Would he have forgone a bonus? Even Mr. Potter cared more than today's bankers that don't even care where the loans that they package originate.

Downsize the big banks, the big insurance co, the big investment houses and they will care. Because then they will have to face their victims at the soccer and t-ball fields.

Downsize, Downsize, Downsize ... bring back competition and bring the banks back to the towns, counties, and states where they were started.

Wait tell the s--t hits your fan and let's see what anger comes flying out. You may even join us with your pitch fork.

A SPECIAL PROSECUTOR MUST BE APPOINTED

A.I.G. has long been a national embarrassment.

http://pacificgatepost.blogspot.com/2009/03/aig-national-embarrassment.html

A Special Prosecutor should be assigned and given wide berth to hunt down the malfeasance.

You can blame your Democrat Mr. Clinton for the Mortgage mess.

And its not Mexicans that are being demonized, its ILLEGAL Mexicans In this country. We have laws for a reason.

I see them all around me and know for a fact that not one illegal pays taxes, but drives on the roads we pave with our sweat. Laws equalize, not penalize.

Everyone who's new in this country. Umm Mexican Nationals, are trying to talk their way into this country "legally" while the rest of us pay for them. That will stop. Especially as the economy tightens up.

As for Gays, they don't do a thing for societal growth, why give them a tax advantage for nothing while heterosexual marriages take the burden of raising kids for the next generation and National Survival. THATS why Married Men & Women GET A TAX BREAK.

The election of Obama hasn't spawned a "New America" its spawned a new president.

He hasn't been in office long enough to know what the outcome of his "democracy" will show but in all likelyhood it will be similiar to Clintons but even Bill had more experience.

I pray for Mr Obama regularly.

In September 30,1999 The New York times ran an article:
"Fannie Mae Eases Credit to Aid Mortgage Lending"

Google it

Its about the nations largest housing lender under the direction of Bill Clinton, giving large loans with no money down and lousy credit ratings to purchase a house's that they didn't qualify for and couldn't afford.

Give big loans to irresponsible people and they'll do irresponsible things, like walk out of thier home mortgage like a kid cutting school.

Quitcher BellyAching, Rush does a good job of exposing the truth. If you don't like what he says stop listening to him.

Dittoheads are so Liberal aren't they. Crack's me up. With all thier rhetoric they remind me of the Russians during the cold war.

The outcry over the AIG bonuses may reflect a deeper realization. Bonuses paid to obviously incompetent gamblers are certainly an issue. However, focusing only on them ignores what is a larger problem. The obscenity of what corporate executive pay has become.

A nurse saves a life, a fireman saves a life and property, a teacher passes on their passion for truth, a librarian keeps the flow of knowledge going in a rural community, a social worker keeps a drug addict off the streets and sane, a policeman protects my neighborhood, a sewage worker keeps it hygienic. Just a sample of the people whose work is essential to the maintenance of society and public order. With few exceptions they will all earn much less than $100K per year; those that are still employed.

The CEO’s of car companies going bankrupt, drug companies whose products are unsafe, and financial management companies now asking, almost pleading, for the help of the tax paying workers above, continue to draw salaries that are frankly obscene. They were obscene when these companies were operating profitably.

I do not believe there is any sensible, rational reason to pay these managers so much money. I do not believe they have earned it, or can justify it in any sane argument. Even if they are talented, clever and sometimes creative; which seems demonstrably doubtful today; they are simply not worth 200 teachers, nurses, police officers, librarians, social or municipal workers.

In the financial world this immoral greed soaked remuneration seems to be taken for granted and has been for many years. So long as our 401K plans did not suffer we did not want to know. Now I do. I hope the disgust that is rising over the AIG bonuses will spread to a larger appreciation of how unbalanced incomes have become, and in doing so have become immoral and insupportable. America is better than this.

The right wingers Deepak mentions believe they have the right values that have made this nation great, and they will fight against any effort against unregulated capitalism. What we have to expose is the great fallacy, and lack of morality, in the Ayn Randian objectivism that underlies American capitalism. That is, no individual can create wealth on his own, without the collective efforts of generations that preceded him and all those who work to make our society function on a daily basis. We have lost morality because we have lost sight of our most valuable economic resource -- our human capital. It is the only resource that provides infinite returns and can get us out of our current mess.

The AIG bonuses were deliberately left in the bailout packages so they could be used to stoke populist revolt with a coordinated media campaign. Everyone in the Obama administration planned the phony indignation, timed perfectly just before payout, over mere $millions when at the same time the Obama administration racks up $billions in wasted welfare state expansion that cruelly destroys human potential and traps millions in pathological government dependency.

Meanwhile, the Democrats like Dodd and Frank act as inquisitors when it was the Democrats like them who created the root problem of too much bad mortgage debt in the entire financial system in the first place.

The outrage should directed at the politicians currently in power. All this bonus hubub is just the latest weekly "attention getter" designed as a distraction to stir fear, uncertainty, and doubt.

Hey Deepak, I am reading your new book now: The Third Jesus. It is very interesting, and I got the DVD with Unity minister. Very nice work!

As for the AIG mess, you make a good point about the current batch of Obama economic advisors coming over from the financial industry. We have all seen similiar issues with military officers retiring from service, and then finding lucrative jobs with defense contractors.

Likewise we have all seen some congressmen retire from government jobs, and become lobbyists or advisors to lobbyists. Panetta comes to mind.

I think Obama is on the right track with his emphasis on ethics and removing a few lobbyists from the game.

Special interests have come to dominate our politics. The average family is left asking, "how can I get a bailout?"

Let me be clear for any who may have misunderstood my posts. THE BAILOUT is consistent with National Socialist economics. Helping the desperate to stay afloat is not.

Still, the bailout was essential. Without it, without AIG, we'd be in a far worse position. That in no way justifies the failure to disclose from the beginning, point by point, exactly what brought us to where we are. And as each point is covered, we should also be apprised of the players, their current finances etc. Any investigative journalists with integrity out there? Besides Paul Krugman, I mean?

WE are the shareholders in AIG, etc. If we don't assert OUR RIGHTS, monitor the doings of the execs on the public dole, we are creating a dangerous situation. OUr government, large banks, brokerage houses, etc., have proven themselves untrustworthy if not criminal.

Phrases like Democrats and Republicans are meaningless at this point. This disgusting deregulation had its beginnings with Regan. The Bushies played parts, as did Clinton.

Now, more than ever we need SOCIALIST economic reform a la FDR. (The uncontrolled often neo-imperialist, corrupt, unregulated capitalist approach has not worked as well as had been expected. (No chickens in all the pots. The cars are in repo)

The knee-jerk crap continues about the administration, and democrats in general, being socialists.

Utter excrement. Read this, in WaPo, by a card-carrying socialist:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/13/AR2009031301899.html

"Bernie Madoff's last-minute contrition doesn't remotely ease his massive immorality."

No, it doesn't, but the Jewish Schools and Universities, the Synagogues, who invested with Madoff for decades to raise for scholarships, etc., are not going to see anything of what was stolen from them. Neither will the George Wills, who invested with Madoff in hopes of accruing enough money to start major philanthropic worl.

The government is not bailing them out. The students will not get the funds they need, renovations will not take place, etc. Philanthropic work by private citizens will not get done. Jewish philanthropic organizations, who give on a nonsectarian basis, will cut back. A couple, like JFS, already have. Private investors, members of synagogues who invested their life savings are lost. One ninety-year-old man iw now working for ten dollars an hour in a supermarket.

What are the Feds doing for these people? Considering the possiblity of lowering their taxes on the money they lost!!!!

I'M NOT KIDDING. HOw about taking some of the millions in bonuses we paid to AIG execs and giving it to the IRS so that these people can be left with what little peace they have left.

BTW., given that Madoff did not scroo the entire nation, I wonder why it is that we know his name and not the names of all the AIG execs who took millions in bonuses, the last, forced to resign who got a golden parachute pension? I mean, yeah, we knew his name once, but why isn't it in the news every day? Along with all the other thieves?

Madoff has nothing to do with this crisis, crook, though he is. I WANT TO KNOW NAMES of those who have dispossessed home owners, caused the loss of hundreds of thousands of jobs, and I want to read about them every day. I want an explanation by Poulson who waited to pull the plug so he could increase the wealth he made on high risk mortages. Foreclosure Phil Gramm, etc.

Gee. Maybe Bernie Madoff should have some company in jail. Maybe, a lot of company.

AGOLEMBE:

"Angry? Sure. But it has always been the upper classes using the lower classes. That will never change unless we harness aspects of socialism to provide oversight of those who use others."

That is precisely what FDR did. What has been done with the bailout is more akin to the economics of Nation Socialism aka Nazism.

As for anger, it's pointless. What we need is action. We, the people, the owners of AIG, need to act.

Socialism! Socialism! I'm so tired of the hackneyed word socialism. Ever hear of evolution? We've tried socialism, we've tried communism, we've tried monarchies, democracies, constitutional monarchies, etc. It's time to evolve and try a hybrid kind of economy and government.

We can use the best of each philosophy to craft an evolved country.

Angry? Sure. But it has always been the upper classes using the lower classes. That will never change unless we harness aspects of socialism to provide oversight of those who use others.

Pres. Obama, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi and the Obama administration, Treasury and the Federal Reserve paid out billions knowing full well that millions in unwarranted bonuses were going to be paid with taxpayers' money.
Now they are ready to scapegoat those who paid under the contracts that existed and try to save their own credibility (fat chance of that) by trying to impose the closest thing to a Bill of Attainder. The power to tax includes the power to destroy. Power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely. We have heard these phrases and seen examples in our past. Nixon was an example of the latter. But in this administration of "change" we see the perfect storm of a bad economy, people losing all they have in savings, their jobs, their homes and a power grab at the top of Government not seen since the Enabling Act of 1933 gave Hitler all powers. He promised to send a letter saying he would only use the power for the good of Germany. The letter never arrived.
Once we have an omnipotent socialist Democratic party, (just two more Democrat Senators) and a SCOTUS of 5-4 left wingers this triad can tax and destroy, abandon our fight against terrorism, and basically run a Totalitarian government.
This can happen here. It happened to a German people who were just as civilized as we and maybe more so.

Correction to my last post: The leftist agitation for Americans' human rights continued through much of the thirties during Roosevelt's administration. He met the challenge.

We are too much isolated today, although most of us live in fairly urban areas. In the thirties all hell broke loose in New York. The left comprised people of all races, nationalities, religions, struggling together in the flesh, not on blogs. Maybe it wasn't hell that broke loose. Maybe, for awhile it was a kind of heaven. Issues of ethnic division gave way before issues of class.

Class is THE issue. Money, power. Class. Always was the issue, always will be. The rest is diversion.

FDR's administration followed on the heels of intense unrelenting activity by union organizers, leftists calling rent strikes, men and women who literally prevented people from being thrown out of their homes, at times fighting off the police. And they were not today's police, troubling as they are. We had the equivalent of our Limbaughs, and worse.

Raging on blogs we didn't have. We need concerted actions, endless demonstrations, whatever it takes. We need the White House to do what it asked of the governors, to account for every single cent they spend. Indeed, this should be done at every level of government.

Full exposure, dollars and cents, of AIG, BOA, Citygroup, should be published on a monthily basis. The key players in these companies that we, the people now own, should be in the news continually.

We have now, what we may fairly call National Socialism. Sound familiar? So long as we remain silent, other kinds of losses, the intangibles that we cherish, are not safe.

Yes, Vedette, united we stand, divided we fall. But the neocons and the 'Christian' right, drooling lemmings all, still brainlessly follow the likes of Rush Bimbo and the Shrub, determined to make Obama fail - and thus make America fail.

There should be a bounty on those bank and insurance bastards taking those bonuses while America and the world suffer. I'm almost ready to man the barricades.

The unrepentant neo-cons posting here prove his point.

It's in everybody's best interest for us to pull out of this. That means we, the government, need to help each other out. United we stand, divided we fall, remember that?

As for socialism, who cares if it works? Unregulated capitalism always collapses. But conservatives have an almost religious faith in its inerrant wisdom. China is communist and their capitalism is kicking the crap out of ours.

Hey. I stopped reading at the word "Bushies." If that is a term that would go along with Chopra's sweet and well-worded books, which I purchased but probably won't anymore, I accept being called that. Unfortunately, being called that label, also labels the user of the word.

Yonkers, New York
17 March 2009

Going by their actions, those "masters of the universe" on Wall Street must consider morality as something "for the birds"-and not for them.

The must feel free to indulge in inordinate greed, in depravation, and in debauchery--and not give a damn about the consequences to the money they handle in trust for others and about the financial and economic consequences to the nation.

I say that these people are the "scums of the earth."

Mariano Patalinjug
MarPatalinjug@aol.com

I wouldn't pay much attention to Chopra. He is nothing more than a snakeoil saleman. Who is he to talk? He is nothing but a huckster.

The entire problem is that the Government should not be bailing ANYBODY out. Obama and the dems should have learned from the failings of TARP, yet they seem to continue to be astounded by what is happening with the money. These businesses should be allowed to fail, its the normal rise and fall of the capitalist market. Yet, Obama continues to issue bail out money, because, fundamentally it continues to advance his socialist agenda of nationalizing this country's institutions. Obama believes that government can solve everyone's problems, and he will continue to get his fingers in everything we do. Wake up people !!!

Obama's new America will become a socialist state. Please read about socialism and tell us all how Obama and his agenda do not fit in as a radical socialist, thought so. There is nothing great about socialism, and it goes against the fundamentals that have made this country great and like no other in the world. Please find me a socialist country in the world where the people are prosperous and happy, thought so. Please educate yourself better...

Limbaugh Republicans tag Obama's outrage at AIG's giving tax money to their fat cat contributors as enticing anger. The delusion of the Cheney/Bush neocons continues with Rush's followers who can't understand why, if Americans were so docile and complacent during the outrage fatigue of the Bush Administration, they can't continue to be the same way now.

The election of Obama spawned a new America - an America of anger over the continuation of the old ways. Like demonizing Muslims, Mexicans, gays and liberals, the dittoheads still believe they can counteract anything they don't like just by associating it with socialism, communism or secularism. Regarding the AIG anger, I think Rush's audience is outnumbered this time.

There will be a protest at Edward M. Liddy's property at 195 Cedar Flats Road, Stony Point, NY at 1PM Sunday. Tell him we're mad as hell about this and we aren't going to take it anymore.