President Obama Compares Big Banks, AIG, to Suicide Bombers

Obama’s policy on neither one makes much sense to me.

30 seconds until waterboarding is worked into the discussion.

Obama has lost all credibility.

I think there are three things to consider in this AIG mess.
(1) The AIG bailout organized by the NY Fed happened in a weekend. Understandably, compensation wasn’t high on the list of priorites.
(2) AIG failing is not an option. It would take the global financial sector down with it and we’d be in a depression right now.
(3) This Bailout rage masks the real issue: we need to put Justice on the case and bring grand juries against not only AIG but Citi and all the major financial institutions.
This administration has been fighting to keep the world financial house in order and deal with this crisis; things have fallen through the cracks. But this off with their heads mentality isn’t helping. Call them out and then fix the mess: that means criminal complaints on AIG IMO. This crisis isn’t over and distracting Treasury isn’t going to help and it won’t help attract folks to the post: three have walked away already rather than deal with this political mess as well as the financial mess. That’s a shame and a danger for the country. WE should be rallying around Treasury like we did the military IMO. The fate of life as we know it hangs in the balance IMO. Tent cities are ALREADY appearing; despite all we’ve done right. The only thing holding us up has been the stimulus and FDR’s legacy as well as Chairman Bernanke and Hank Paulson’s forceful action. I know Paulson is a pariah; but history will say he stepped up and fought hard when the chips were down.
That’s my take anyway.
Our financial system was hijacked and the people who did it are obviously looting and threatening to blow the world up if they don’t get paid: see Citi CEO and his 11 million. But we still gotta save them to save ourselves. Who know Wall Street would be twice the headache Iran is? Go figure.

next up… the fannie/freddie exec bonuses due to be paid under obama’s watch. how ya gonna spin this??

The President is UNBELIEVABLE!! President Obama wants us to think he’s a standup kinda guy. He feigns outrage over AIG and the bonuses, but it turns out he (his Administration) cajoled Sen Dodd into making certain a provision to protect the bonuses was inserted into the Stimulus Plan. The “outrage” frenzie that the President, and his stoogie Capitol Hill Democrats have worked up is not only hypocritical, but it is endangering the lives of AIG employees and their families.
A friend of mine told me the Latin phrase to describe the President and Sen Dodd’s two-faced hypocracy: they’re lying sacks of sheet!

I’ve told these people time and time again the entire economy could come crashing down on us, water could turn to blood, children might starve and dogs and cats might start living together but they still aren’t completely distracted from the incompetence of my administration or my over-reaching power grab. Hmmm…I know, I know! I’ll drop in the phrase “suicide bomber”! ——-Honestly, has this guy acted presidential one time since his inaugaration? Pathetic. And now he goes on Leno?! The first sitting president in history to hit the late-night talk show circuit?! My God!

Banks that are too big to fail are too big. Teddy Roosevelt busted up the trusts for a reason. A free market requires that those who do well be allowed to succeed. It also requires that those who screw up be allowed to fail. The phrase “too big to fail” is an indictment of the current state of American capitalism.

Extremely politically tone deaf comment by Obama.
“Here’s the problem,” Mr. Obama said, “It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger.”
I’m sorry, this is just wrong. The President must not stoop to this level of Orwell.1984 type rhetoric oomparing bank executives to suicide bombers. This is just wrong.

simple easy. Europe funded a side in the feuding between the two sides of what divided the united states during the civil war. they aided the confederate,
now since that time and before a back door entry was created. In the fraternaties of our universities and places of education. Skull and bones for example.
gives these priveleged class of students a great unrecorded amount of funding from a european connected grant. they are and have been known to have entered into a royal
chivalry covenant, of which they are well cared for. Selected and only by selection. They are knighted before our faces and their loyalties are no longer to our country.
Obama was is the fall guy. He’s smart, but it’s far too well structured to have been done alone. it was done by many. look for the employer of the mathmaticians that could have
created such a complex formula. it’s all tied. washington and wall street. for a purpose only to expand the fact that the common wealth in which the district of columbia reside in are
and have been that of managed common wealth of the royal monarchial cartel that have like an octupus with is enforcing analysts to regulate the resources of our world and the barters that
come with those transactions.
“Orional 13th amendment” will automatically remove a corrupt official. Just get a officer and print the law of the land. need 38 states to get wall street, washington, cheney, bush, and due to the
fact that democrates and republicans also have that corrupt stentch on them it’s hard to enfore unless you help. dems and repubs are in-charge of this vote. and its you telling them that your IN-CHARGE! ! !

Some times the President actually speaks the truth:
“Here’s the problem,” Mr. Obama said.

I quess Obama needs to get out his ole’ scalpel and seperate the bomb from the banks, instead of throwing the hatchet at it.

The media is the voice of the state they have forgotten to remember the individual. We the people have to understand our philosophy behind our principle conservatives. We conservative stand for liberty the other side does not and that is why people like Barnabus Frank want to take a private citizens property, you have a leader of the senate who publicaly goes after a private citizen…. Harry Reid vs the Elrushbo, and a President that would be happy to punish those who are succesful and take everything you earn to fortify his power. I here the left constantly rippimg down our country trashing hard working people such as those at AIG. AIG entered into these contracutal arrangements and need to be treated with respect. Congress is no more than a frenzied mob. Congress has targeted private citizens and this sounds to me like congress is acting like a totaliarian regime. Yhey make me sick to my stomach. Congress caused this whole mess and it goes deep and the very people who caused this whole mess are those that are creating new policy. What a bunch of hacks.

Sam Tyler wrote: “The funniest part is that to YOU Bush was a brilliant orator. Ha!”………Nice set of quotes. Of course it is nothing more than a red herring. The fact that a previous president made asinine statements has no bearing whatsoever with criticism of similar comments from the sitting president. Another problem. You are the only one to mention Bush and thus have presented, in addition to the red herring, a strawman argument. But hey, if it makes you feel better who cares about the facts?

Dan: So your point is that I COULD have said it better?

Obama and the Dems are SAVING their
fat cats on Wall Street with the black hole of AIG swallowing the buckets of
taxpayers money. This ensures buckets
of dough coming back to the left at
election time. This is the street
game of find the queen after I maneuver
the three cards. The idiots screaming
and applauding at the “town hall” today
will NEVER guess where the queen hides.
The “queen” is Barney Frank, Dodd, et. al. Acorn will re-census America into
a Dem fortress. CBS,NBC,ABC,NYT cheer
the effort. Obama reverts to B-S mode,
and all is well.

AIG gave Obama only slightly less than
Dodd in the last election cycle.
Move on, folks…………….NOTHING
to see here…………………….

Comparing AIG and the other banks to suicide bombers shows just how inept the President is at representing a situation and/or how little respect he has for the intelligence of the public. If the end-all and be-all of these organizations is gain then deliberately setting out to destroy themselves and the system around them is the last thing they would want to do. He could have compared the situation to an infection or disease that threatens the health of the entire system, but by trying to link this economic situation to one of national security is just pathetic.

Mr. Liddy, the CEO of AIG who took this job in 2008 on the behest of the Bush Admn. and the “outraged” politicians, testified today that although he felt these bonuses were horrible he also felt that in order to repay taxpayers quickly and control further systemic risk to our economy, it was prudent to pay out these bonuses.
This person is being paid a meager salary of $1.00 per year without a bonus or stock options in lieu of services. Neither is he a politician.
If YOU were on the hook for $165 billion dollars to AIG and the guy runnning the company told you that these bonuses should be paid in order to pay you back, what would you do? You know what, don’t answer because we all know what we would do and its exactly what Geithner did and he did so upon the recommendation from the guy working in the trenches, not the politicians in Washington.
If they returned the money, would we be talking about this now? The fact that these people keep the bonuses is OUTRAGEOUS!!

What gives? I didn’t see the AIG bonuses on that comprehensive graph on recovery

So why the heck dont we let them blow themselves up? Sorry, but I disagree with Obama. Let them flush themselves into the toilet.

I think Obama’s comparison was very accurate.
AIG knows that if they go down the world economy goes down.
Another one to look at is Goldman Sachs. paulsons former employer that made him a multi-millionaire
They were the first to get TARp money, plus Goldman received several billion from AIG to cover their gambling losses.

What did Wells Fargo do that was so bad?
Keep Wachovia from failing.
He really needs to learn that as President of the United States, he has a big megaphone. Name-checking companies (and countries) must be done with caution.

Obama says he can Walk and Chew Gum at the Same Time. He also said he would go Line by Line & Veto Pork Too! You Can take Obama out of Chigaco, but you can’t take Chigaco out of Obama. No Obama 2012.

I support Obama but poor choice of words on this one. Let’s see proactive leadership, not necessary to pile on with negativity, there are always plenty to carry that banner, the President has to always, always, always rise above the pack.

That’s right Obama. Keep the anger on the banks and not the fact your policies are directly responsible for helping them out.

99% LIES!! THATS THE REPUBLICAN WAY ,IF THEIR LIPS ARE MOVING THERE IS A LIE COMING SOON FOR SURE.
Posted by: Brian Wilson | Mar 19, 2009 2:21:37 AM
99.9% Lies!! (fixed that for you!)

OK. So, when AIG funnels money overseas, is that like an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile? Put your money where you can find it.

obama has said TWICE now that he doesn’t care about being re-elected…
“if this bailout doesn’t work i’ll be a one term president…”
“i’d rather be a one term president that got a lot done that a two term mediocre president.”
BE AFRAID. BE VERY AFRAID.

Hey , Anti-Harkonnen Freedom Fighter don’t forget about the fake birth certificate and also that Obamno is a Muslim and hates all whites ,and is also plotting (along with pelosi and reid) to let terrorists invade the usa and is going to set up liberal run concentration camps for anti obama citizens (its already happening ,use goggle) and for americans who wont become muslims.
its all facts…
Make sure you get all the republican facts out there so we can win next election!

Obama is the worse President in this history since former Pres. Carter.

Why color important? Go back one step and look at the whole situation. The important thing is how the gov is working and what the president is doing, not the skin colors

Oh wait…I’m sorry. I owe an apology to Tim W. I misunderstood what you said. It was someone else you were quoting. I’ve made a fool of myself. I apologize.

“Here’s the problem,” Mr. Obama said, “It’s almost like they’ve got — they’ve got a bomb strapped to them and they’ve got their hand on the trigger. You don’t want them to blow up. But you’ve got to kind of talk them, ease that finger off the trigger.”
Interesting analogy… does that mean that once he’s gotten them to “ease that finger off the trigger” he’s going to have a sniper take the shot? Or is he going to say, “Thank you for not blowing us all up! Here, have these sacks of money! We hope we’ll see you back here at work bright and early at 10:30AM!”

We in Europe esp. in The Netherlands are still applauding President BAM cleaning the mess of 8 years of Republicans garbage politics!Americans,for crying out loud,give the President BAM the time to clean the mess!!!he inherited,AIG were already giving bonuses during Bush’s government and why all these commotion’s now that Pres.Bam is really giving all his best to clean messy Uncle Sam.I love America to the core here from Europe.

Guess he didn’t have a teleprompter. Outrageous remark.

What is this article doing here? It doesn’t have anything to do with Barry’s basketball picks. Shame on you ABC! You should concentrate on fluff and leave the hard reporting to Fox.

What were people thinking putting this guy in the Oval office? Explaining and restating the obvious, by the oblivious, is his trademark. Supporting a dude simply because of his ‘ethnic background’ is now proving to be beyond absurd. It has gone all the way to ‘oh, oh, we done messed up, but we’ll never admit it’.

This is all a distraction. The democrats are one million times more wealthy and corrupt than the AIG executives. This is all a manufactured distraction to get people to not pay attention to the outrageous abuse of spending of tax payer dollars without any oversight. 4.2 billion dolars to ACORN in the stimulus bill, and the media as well as the Obamabots, mentioned nothing.

I don’t think Obama really meant for that to come out the way it did. The teleprompter told him to say it, and it slipped before Barry knew what happened.
Now, aren’t we all curious as to what the teleprompter will make him say today? Maybe he’ll thank himself again, just like he did on St. Patty’s Day when the teleprompter gave him the wrong speech! lolololol

Just because AIG EMPLOYEES(!) donated money to Obama’s campaign doesn’t mean it is AIG money – that is wrong to imply. If AIG employees wanted to support Obama’s campaign back in Sep ’08, (at the height of a close campaign) so be it.

Brian, I agree.. I also say to the voters in San Francisco California, send someone else back to congress in 2010. Pelosi is yet another idiot that needs to go. Hell, all of Congress should be recalled. The Democratic and Republican party have proven to the American people that they are no longer viable. Both now have a credibility problem that is beyond repair. Just look at Sen. Chris Dodd. That sack of potatoes lies to the American people that he knew nothing about the clause in the stimulus bill protecting company bonuses. He now admits he slipped that clause in the stimulus bill. Makes you wonder how many lies he’s told, eh? Oh, and I’m sure he’s not the only one that’s lied. There’s that other idiot, Barnie Frank.

Get over the bonuses already. Get over the Dodd amendment. Get over it. Congress has NO constitutional authority to abrogate private contracts to which the federal government is not a party. None. Former President Bush insisted that TARP 1 must not contain any limits on executive compensation, because of his view that the government should not be setting compensation rates for private business even if it is a majority shareholder. So TARP 1 funds were paid even though AIG had these contracts. That may have been a mistake, but it wasn’t a mistake that entitles the federal government to invalidate private contracts. The ball was in AIG’s court to demonstrate good faith by doing everything possible to rescind or renegotiate its agreements. AIG didn’t until yesterday. The rest of the Dodd amendment, by the way, imposes major restrictions on compensation to future TARP recipients. The right way to do this is to impose the limitations as a condition of receiving money. This Administration is willing to do that. I am glad that so far, it is not willing to engage in an unlawful exercise of federal power by invalidating the bonus agreements. Geez, conservatives, I thought you’d be with Dodd on this one!

Obama HIMSELF knew about the bonuses on March 12th, BEFORE they were paid. “AFTER the funds were disbursed, the president ordered his economic and legal teams to determine if there was a way to recoup the money, according to the aide.”
On the 17th, however, his paunchy press secretary answered questions about what “the administration” knew and WHEN it knew it with: “Gibbs said Monday, “Based on what I read in the newspaper,” the administration learned about the bonuses last week. He declined to offer a timeline on Tuesday.” (Click through ‘posted by’ for link.)
Why are we picking on the comically inept Geithner, the ethically inept Dodd and the law-abiding Liddy when Obama HIMSELF could have brought it to a screeching halt before one dime went anywhere? (And actually acted like the crusading hero he campaigned as?)

obamma’s a genius bailout AIG so the company will have money to make more
multimillion dollar political donations to reelect the crooked politicians who got them the money
then make sure the employees who destroyed the company get those big fat bonuses so they can continue donating millions of dollars to again support crooked politicians who made sure they got those bonuses
another words the American tax payer gets to donate money to reelect crooked politicians who got AIG the billions and billions dollars

This shows Obama’s contempt and loathing of the U.S. financial and capitalist system.
He believes that the banks are holding the US hostage and that they will blow themselves up and take the hostages with them unless Obama pays the ransom.
How did this guy become President of the United States?

How does this help Obama’s Final Four picks?

Hey Dodd, obama, get ahead of things. Give back 5 years of AIG bribes/donations and 5 years of Fannie/Freddie donations. Same for the rest of all Congressmen – both parties.
At least the Democrats read the stimulus package before voting for it, so they knew about the Dodd amendment. Oh wait, that’s right, they didn’t read and still voted for it. but it’s not their fault.

So, Obama is simply paying the American lip service pretending he knew nothing about the provisions in the stimulus package. What a rat! And Dodd now is the fall guy. Obama, you’ve bamboozled the American people. That dog and pony show you’ve put where you show outrage over the distribution of these bonuses is simply a show. Who in hell do you think you’re kidding? Unfortunately, the people who got you elected can’t see you doing no evil. What a shame! What a travesty!

“Just because AIG EMPLOYEES(!) donated money to Obama’s campaign doesn’t mean it is AIG money – that is wrong to imply. If AIG employees wanted to support Obama’s campaign back in Sep ’08, (at the height of a close campaign) so be it.”
That’s exactly right. Corporations are prohibited by federal election law from contribution to political campaigns. It’s not like the AIG board voted to give $100K to Obama. These contributions – and those to other politicians (Dodd who was #1, McCain who was #3) – all came from individuals employed by AIG. These were legal contributions and almost all of them were made before AIG blew up last fall. There’s a lot of noise about Obama and Dodd (somehow, McCain is left out) returning this money. How does that help. The money would go to the accounts of the individuals who contributed, not AIG. Many of those individuals might not want the money back. And some of those individuals may not even work for AIG any longer.
People, understand campaign finance law before you go around peddling your feigned outrage.

Bailouts build strong muscles.

It is evident that current AIG management has no clue and they are taking decision that are not in interest of taxpayer.
Voters on the other hand is expecting silver bullet or Obama to be a King Lear who can fix their problems in a days.
Bank are too big and should not be allowed to failed is not an excuse.
Classic Management one liners.
a. “How do you eat an elephant?” – One bite at a time
b. “Divide and Conquer”
If AIG or other banks are giants then create baby AIG or other banks as they created Baby Bells for AT&T.

How could those teleprompters be so so insensitive?
Shame on them…

Also, FYI, ABC News itself reports that the Obama campaign received a $23,000 post-bailout “bonus” from AIG’s employees, so my numbers aren’t too far off. Maybe they screwed up on the search and my numbers of about 24,000.00 are right. Either way, its a fact, buddy, that Obama received a post bailout cash injection from AIG employees.
ABC News:
According to the Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks campaign finance reports, more than $120,000 of that money was donated after AIG received its first $85 billion in federal bailout funds in September. The company has since received a total of $170 billion in taxpayer cash to prevent its collapse.
Their generosity included more than $23,000 to Obama’s campaign.
Both Obama and Republican presidential candidate John McCain raked in much larger sums from AIG earlier in the year. Obama collected a total of $130,000 from AIG in 2008, while McCain accepted a total of $59,499.
Also, a Connecticut newspaper reports that Senator Dodd will return any “tainted” contributions from AIG employees – whatever Dodd deems “tainted” to mean, I suppose. Dodd has received many contributions from employees of the Connecticut-based AIG Financial Products unit over the years – and AIG’s employee PAC.

There are over 500 Trillion $ (yes Trillion $ with a T) of BS backed derivatives out there , to make them “good” planets entire GDP is not enough let alone Americas. AIG insuring hedge funds etc… Bite the bullet and trash them and start a fresh system, it will be one time hit or else it will be a never ending misery.

SO. Obama and Congressional Democrats (like Dodd!) solicit and take HUGE campaign donations from evil suicide bombers?

Banks and AIG as suicide bombers??! Was there a glitch in the teleprompter or did he really want to make that analogy?

Another day in United States Of Ponzi

This president is dangerous. Is his description of banks intended to start a run on the banks or can he really be that clueless?

It was in such incredibly poor taste to compare multi-millionaire AIG executives to terrorist suicide bombers.

“In other words, the banks and AIG are being allowed to force the rest of us to cover their losses for them. They are no better than a suicide bomber.’
It is Congress and Obama, not AIG nor the banks, that have forced these losses on taxpayers.

The analogy is only flawed in identifying the bankers with the bank, and in the idea that they have a bomb strapped to themselves. The bomb, instead is just strapped to the bank. If the banks go down, then the credit system collapses and we are indeed screwed.
But the bank going down does not mean the bankers go down because of the lack of accountability in this whole fiasco.
The only pseudo-plausible argument for giving bonuses to the AIG execs is that if they are the only ones who can solve the problem they leave, we’re screwed. And they will leave if they don’t get their bonuses.
Really it’s like certain bankers have accidentally set up a bomb in the financial system and they won’t defuse it unless we give them more money. If we don’t give them money, well they’ll walk away out of a job but probably not to badly off; and the rest of the economy burns.

He’s sick, sick, sick. I ‘any’ Joe Sixpack mentioned ‘bomb’ and ‘trigger’ in the same paragraph, Home Security, FBI, ATF, USMS, USBP, and Obama’s Momma’d be crashing your party faster than Charlie Rangel can invent a new tax dodge!

The insanity of Obama knows no bounds!!
The Audacity Of Insanity should be his next book!

So when will President Barack Obama be returning all of the money he accepted from AIG and the other companies that accepted federal bailout funds?

“The most effectual means of preventing [the perversion of power into tyranny are] to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts which history exhibits,….”
Thomas Jefferson
Got change? Yeah I think we did.
Now let’s read some books and get some edjumacation.