Liddy, AIG, hypocrisy and greed!

Here's the latest from BuzzFlash (in case you missed it):

When Edward Liddy, now the chief honcho at A.I.G., headed up Allstate Insurance, he had no qualms about firing 6,000 agents. What contracts? Who gives a damn about contracts?

Because Liddy has done a 180 and now cries that A.I.G. contracts are sacred, even though these "A.I.G. Execs ... Led American Into Losing Hundreds of Billions of Dollars" ...

"Liddy is the BuzzFlash GOP Hypocrite of the Week ... for this and so much more. He even called these 'retention' bonuses at A.I.G..., even though 11 of the multi-millionaire execs had already left the company. A.I.G. and Liddy exemplify the Reagan/Bush era of no responsibility for one's actions as long as one swears an oath to greed."


But there's more...unbelievably!

"A.I.G. Sues U.S. for Return of $306 Million in Tax Payments." Yup. A.I.G. "is quietly fighting the federal government for the return of $306 million in tax payments, some related to deals that were conducted through offshore tax havens."

A.I.G. is using taxpayer money in their suit.

The IRS denied A.I.G.'s initial claim last year.

The phony "tea party" protests

[Image from M. Malkin's blog]

The opposition is organizing. They're not going down without a fight. Typically, it will be a dirty fight.

Last Friday, hundreds of protesters showed up in 30 to 40 cities nationwide to bluster against President Obama's stimulus package. The protesters "claimed that the well-coordinated protests had arisen spontaneously in response to a tirade against mortgage bailouts, delivered just over a week earlier, on February 19, by CNBC's Rick Santelli."

Michelle Malkin, one of those right wingnuts who wants Obama to fail, got all fluttery calling these "Tea Party" protests, claiming they were a "'fledgling grassroot movement.'"

Ms. Kane says that "some of the protestors even described themselves as the vanguard of a 'new conservative counterculture.'"

Ms. Kane also says that "those claims aroused a certain amount of skepticism, since similar activities in the past have proven to be not genuine grassroots activity but so-called corporate 'astroturf.'"


Aha! "Mark Ames and Yasha Levine allege in their blog at Playboy.com that the protests were planned well in advance, coordinated by old-line anti-tax organizations, and funded by right-wing corporate interests."

Ms. Kane has much more to say, but this is the kicker. There is a ChicagoTeaParty.com. "It was registered last summer by the producer of a right-wing radio show in Chicago and, [Ames and Levine] allege, is one of several tied to the anti-tax group FreedomWorks, which is among the sponsors of the current protests."


What we are facing in this country is the continued assault on effective government; government of the people, by the people, for the people. Entrenched interests and running scared. You can expect the political machinations of those entrenched interests to become down and dirty and become increasingly shrill as they cry about "socialism," and "communism," and "liberals" ruining our way of life.

The truth, of course, is the opposite. Unfortunately, too many of the dumb and dumber will believe them.


Read all of Ms. Kane's article here.

The hateful demagogue, Michelle Malkin's take is here.

A responsible rant with much more detail on corporate chicanery is here.