After a really bummed-out day, Senator Chris Dodd and Treasury Secretary Timmy Geitner enjoy "Seafood Nite" in the AIG executive dining room with host; Ed Liddy, CEO of AIG
WASHINGTON - After earlier vehemently denying all knowledge whatsoever, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd admitted in a full reversal on Wednesday he was indeed responsible for a legislative loophole that let AIG pay executives $165 million in bonuses, adding that he acted at the behest of the Obama administration.
The back-peddle was; “We wrote the language in the bill to deal with bonuses, golden parachutes, excessive compensation — executive compensation, that was adopted unanimously by the United States Senate in the stimulus bill,” said Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat.
And so, the language worked as intended, and that’s that. This explains how and why the AIG Financial Products boys are entitled to their taxpayer funded $165 million in bonuses.
Senator Chris "The Claw" Dodd vows to push for return AIG bonuses using clawback methods
As a side dish, Chris Dodd took in more than $103,000 in the 2008 election period from this same disaster division of AIG, based in Wilton, Connecticut. Dodd, serving since 1981, is the Senior Senator from the State of…Connecticut.
Not that it really matters, but it’s only fair to note that the Obama campaign too benefited from substantial AIG contributions.
Just when I was starting to feel a return of that tingling sensation fondly remembered as understanding, yea comes President Obama with the unveiling of a cryptic logo for public recognition of his compellingly cryptic economic recovery plan.
Covered in the US Constitution, is that part about the Right to Bare Arms, which extends to national symbols of pride and stimulus logos.
Expressly stated, if and when they, including logos, come into use by the people and paid for by the people, all must;
a. get created after winning a government contract with bidding open to all (graphic designers), b. have actual meaning, and c. get posted to a ‘dot gov’ web site for scrutiny of the people for a review and comment period of not less than 48 hours.
Now, Ibid and Op.Cit and of the afore and such, as a graphics guy, I’m protesting a rights alienation violation here, in that nobody from the Department of Homeland Logos bothered to let me know about this monumental government gig. It was like, “poof, here’s the new logo.” Is this a smack-down to all that transparency in government jaw-boning or what?
I smell foul, because the guy who got this job, who is not getting a free link here, is the same guy who designed all of the Obama campaign logos. So much for change to the same old political systems of cronyism and throwup to your buds.
Anyhow, moving on, let’s spend a minute trying to figure out what message the Administration Logo Czar is attempting to parlay. In disection, and to the colors chosen, gone are our traditional red, white and blue, replaced by firebrick, lawngreen and darkcyan. Warm fuzzies be sure, but I’m not feeling stimulated. In thinking recovery; firebrick = working, at a blast furnace, maybe? Lawngreen = taking care of your yard prior to foreclosure? I don’t get it.
See the stars? Stars are good, but why eight? Does this mean that eight stimulus packages will need to be congressionally passed in order to get some recovery? Two four year terms for President Obama? Of the thirteen original Colonies, five were on the losing side in the War Between the States? Again, I’m lost.
How about the graphic in the lawngreen pie slice. To me, this looks like a Callaway golf driver with replaceable heads. More leisure time is right around the pie? Or, remember when cotton was grown in the United States? The cotton industry used to have a logo similar to this, so maybe a return to our farmer roots and contour plowing? I don’t know.
Lastly, the gears, or sprockets. I can equate this easily to work, but there again, I notice the gears here do not mesh, and one is missing an anchor bolt. A broken machine? Call the your recovery man for service? You tell me.
Mr. Obama talks about ending government waste and unnecessary spending and all, so I have to question the very need for a new logo. An Obama spokesman was quoted to defend in saying; “We just wanted a cool symbol that shouted ’stimulus.’” Well, news flash – it doesn’t “shout” anything. It’s a good thing the designer added the “RECOVERY.GOV” text, otherwise, at first blush, I’d think this thing was a tag intended to convey laundry do’s and don’ts for my underwear.
What would have been cool, affordable, and an all-around good gesture, would have been to pull an old “shovel-ready” logo out of retirement and putting it back to work. For me, naturally, the iconic and universally loved “Bert the Turtle” comes to the forefront. Bert was brilliant, genius even, and as a government spokesmodel, Bert had star power. In short, when it came to matters of Civil Defense, Bert was the go to guy, happening and cool; the “new black.”
Bert the Turtle tells all to "Duck and Cover"
During those Cold War days, there was no mistaking Bert’s “Duck and Cover” message, giving the government’s best plan in surviving the hit from a thermo-nuclear bomb. If you are not of that era, many of those bombs acted just like “pick-a-payment” mortgage loans, where the house and contents remain intact, but the inhabitants get ravaged.
In supporting recycling Bert, consider the following 1950 radio show dialog between some girl with the fitting name of “Patsy,” and Bert:
BERT THE TURTLE: There are other ways you can learn to duck and cover in case of danger.
PATSY: Like the things our teacher told us to do in case of an atom bomb?
BERT THE TURTLE: That’s right, the atom bomb is a new danger in our lives. It can surprise us at any time.
How much is it going to cost the taxpayers to replace the words; “Atom Bomb” with “Economic Meltdown?” Really. Clear message? Cool? Affordable? Yes, yes, and yes!
The Bert the Turtle haute couture look of today
Think about it. Re-introducing Bert is a win-win proposition all around. Everybody who is anybody is already sporting the Bert look, so nobody needs to spend a dime in preparation, and from the appearance of the way these de rigueur “day packs” are stuffed, Americans are in step ahead of econ-o-bombs and foreclosure fallout, smartly toting what remains of their household contents.
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