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People, this is dangerous and scary. Congress and the Obama administration in their attempt to misdirect our attention from what is really going on, are instead fueling and inciting the genesis of class warfare in this Country. The AIG bonus debacle has exploded in the face of Congress, and everyone there who voted to pass the stimulus bill which specifically allowed the bonuses, is falling all over themselves in the interest of personal political damage control.
In hearings last week, Barney Frank insisted that he be provided the names of AIG bonus recipients, despite the concerns of Edward Liddy that company’s CEO . Liddy, citing death threats toward his current and past employees, rightly asked for a guarantee of confidentiality, which the grandstanding Frank refused. Instead, Representative Frank and his colleagues in Congress displayed more indignation, and fomented more generalized anger toward those “wealthy” bastards who would dare to steal money from the taxpayers of this Country. Did I mention that Frank, Pelosi, Dodd et al., had they been doing their jobs, should have known the bonus provisions were in the stimulus package when they voted to make it law? So, retroactively they want to go back and fix their mistake. Unfortunately they are prepared to do so at the expense of American citizens who were foolish enough to negotiate a contract in their own best interest, which they logically assumed would be honored as any other created in this Country. I don’t believe those Americans ever expected to become the symbol of all that is wrong with the economy and our Government’s efforts to repair it, and I am certain they didn’t expect the safety and security of their families to be jeopardized because of it.
And so it begins, Yahoo news reports :
FAIRFIELD, Conn. – A busload of activists — outnumbered 2-to-1 by reporters and photographers — are paying visits to the homes of American International Group Inc. executives in Connecticut to protest tens of millions in bonuses awarded by the company.
About 40 protesters parked at a cul-de-sac Saturday afternoon and walked to the Fairfield home of Douglas Polling. They were met on the curb by two security guards, and one activist read a letter detailing the financial struggles that many Connecticut residents have faced. The group then left the note in Polling's mailbox.
Polling already agreed to forfeit his bonus, but the protesters want AIG executives to do more to help working families.
AIG has received more than $182 billion in federal aid.
The agenda is becoming clear, and the implications are terrifying. Congress and this administration intend to tax the wealthy, vilify the successful, divide this nation between “providers” and “receivers”, and generate enough anger that people will start to take issues into their own hands with confrontations such as the one at Douglas Polling’s home. No good can come from this, and no one in America should have to hire security guards because of unrest being stirred by our own Government. It is unconscionable and Frank with the rest of his cronies should be ashamed.
My generation has witnessed the dogs and fire hoses of the rights struggles in the South. We have seen the clubbing and teargas of Chicago in 1968, and we watched fellow students fired upon and dying on a hillside at Kent State. We certainly don’t need confrontations inspired, organized or sanctioned by our Government. Spotlighting class differences and inequities was key to candidate Obama’s campaign, and organizing everyone in this Country who felt left out, disenfranchised or oppressed by “the man” helped him win the election. However the people he promised to help, will not be well served by widespread class animosity.
If you target people just because they are successful, you undermine the basic principles that have allowed the United States in a little over 200 years to become the greatest nation on earth in terms of it’s ability to provide for and protect it’s citizens. The real issue is not that people are rich or poor, but rather why people are rich or poor. That is problem that will never be resolved though angry confrontation.
It is time for President Obama to step to the podium and say: “enough is enough”. It is time for him to show some leadership and rein in the half-wits in Congress who are trying to save their own skin at the expense of the American people. While he is discussing the family dog on talkshows, Congress is moving this Country in a direction we can’t afford financially, philosophically or morally and it is a deadly “Pandora’s Box” that once opened will be difficult to close.
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