THE TERRORISTS OF WALL STREET

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BIG FINANCE HOLDS A GOLDEN GUN TO AMERICA'S HEAD OF STATE

OBAMA CHICKENS OUT IN RUSSIAN ROULETTE

"Give Us Your Money Unconditionally Or We'll KILL Your Economy!!!"

Union contracts affecting millions can be shredded, ignored or rewritten without any difficulty. A few individual Wall Street executives' contracts cannot be touched. The union workers did no wrong. But they're getting screwed anyway. The Wall Streeters wrecked the economy while stealing billions. And now you and I are going to pay them billions more in bonuses for committing those crimes. Why?

Why? What are you, stupid? It's capitalism, baby! Free enterprise! This ain't no freakin' workers' paradise, you tool! What did you THINK that meant? Did you think you were one of the winners? BWAHAWHAHAHAH!!! Were you born with a membership in an exclusive country club? A seat on the New York Stock Exchange or the Chicago Board of Trade? An ancestor in the White House or the Senate? No? Well, then, you're nobody, nothing, nowhere, man. This game isn't being played for you. It's being played ON you.

See, the autoworkers and their sweaty ilk have no choice but to allow the abrogation of their own contracts. It's either that or die, financially. The whole industry could vanish overnight in this country, and all those working stiffs could then be homeless in a matter of weeks. That's the system they worked and fought and died for over the years, in the factories and in the many many wars of empire. That's the system they are going to have to pay for now. They're willing to do it because they see the need, and they care about our country, and their way of life, which they would lose by not giving in to this extortion. They're doing it because they have no choice. They're Americans [Read: "SUCKERS"].

Wall Street, on the other hand, already has enough of our money to pull up stakes and move to China or Brazil or Timbuktu and start a new economic empire there. Or, they could just sit it out, picking up big bloody chunks of what's left of this country for pennies on the dollar, after they pull their own moneylending temples down around them. It's win-win for them. If the American taxpayer doesn't give them everything they want, they just finish destroying the economy, and scarf up the pieces. Unlike the millions of blue-collar workers, Wall Streeters have the leverage to destroy the whole country, and still benefit by it. But their very, very good friends in Washington would never call them on that. They don't have the balls. And it would be rude for our "leaders" to speak to their corporate masters in such disrespectful tones.

See, the go-along to get along crowd in DC has been helping corporations take over the country for years now, shaping and reshaping our laws and institutions to serve corporate interests, not citizens'. In exchange, our glorious figureheads never had to work at a real job or worry about money, except at campaign time, when they had to bust their asses just kissing corporate sh*tholes. That's how the system really works, schmuck. You thought it was working for you, because you were so enmeshed in it. And you thought, "Oh, well, I got a house and a car out of it. My kids get to go to college. I have health insurance at work. I'll be able to retire at 50 or 60. It's a wonderful life." But now your job looks a little shaky. You may not be able to make your house and car payments much longer. If you lose your job, you'll lose your health insurance. You may even have to pull the kids out of college. There goes their middle-class status. And retirement? Well, that's already gone. It's almost as if you were what some people used to call a "n*gger." You know, a second-class citizen. A completely powerless person. A slave, a serf, a peasant, a bum. Poor, homeless, unemployed. How could this have happened to a nice "middle-class" white boy or girl like you? You, a veteran, a taxpayer, a property-owner, a person with a job or a business? A WHITE GUY!!!

What you failed to realize all along was that, if you weren't born with that membership in the exclusive country club, etc, you were a "n*gger." You were fooled by your own skin color. You came to believe your own bullsh*t: That you were the Master or Mistress of all that junk that you owe so much money on; and that it all made you SOMEBODY. Well, how's that workin' out for ya?

There was still time to reverse all this, last year. Back in November, maybe you thought you did reverse all this. But then your buddy Obama started appointing Bushies and Clintonistas, Wall Streeters and torturers to all of his highest posts. Still, you didn't catch on. You were still thinking that you mattered, somehow; that your vote had actually counted for something; all we had to do was be patient and trust in big O and wait, Change was coming. How's that "change" workin' out for ya?

This year we're all faced with another kind of change, and a much starker set of choices. We can eat corporate sh*t, or we can revolt. I mean, we obviously don't have the balls to pick up a gun and slaughter our way down Wall Street or up Capitol Hill. That would be wrong. That would be un-American. We would, could and should never do that. If only because our own military and police forces would cut us down without mercy, using bullets we paid for. So our corporate masters and their tame talking heads in the media and in the government all know that they can pretty much do anything they want to us. We're their bitches. Unless we rise up peacefully and just stop supporting them. Stop working, consuming, tax-paying, voting, serving in the military, going to school, playing their game. National strike, that's one thing we could do. Bring the game to a grinding halt. But who's going to organize that? And who's going to participate?

Because, you know, we never participate in anything. We don't go to meetings or run for office or organize movements. We just passively sit and wait for somebody else to do everything for us. And that's what we're doing now. Instead of picking up a gun or an axe or a scythe like some third-world peasants, instead of shutting down the country and marching in the streets like citizens of a real democracy, we just sit drooling in front of the daily corporate propaganda show on the tee-vee, and let 'em f*ck our country into submission, and us along with it. Because we don't have the balls to put our own lives and lifestyles on the line. So I guess we deserve to play Russian roulette, and lose. Even if there never was a chance we could win. Suckers.

See, the French shut down their country when the rich pull this sh*t over there. Back in the day, they even chopped the bastards heads off. That'll get their attention! Bad French! Bad! But the French have real political Parties, Left, Right and Center. They have real unions. They know how to organize and work together, how to take effective action and defend their own interests. Maybe they're not "surrender monkeys" after all. Maybe we are.
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SAY HELLO TO AIG, SAY GOODBYE TO YOUR MONEY

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UNLIKE MANY WALL STREET FIRMS, AIG HAS AN OFFICE IN YOUR HOME TOWN



AIG CONTACT INFO RIGHT HERE! WHY NOT DROP IN AND SAY HI!

ABC NEWS: NIGHTLINE
"AIG under Criminal Investigation"
Your Tax Dollars At Work.



Or, Ask For Your Money Back?

Whatever you do, do NOT jam their switchboard or website or emails. Do not send them stinky things like fish or dog-poo in the mail. Do not EVER trash their offices or the vehicles in their parking lots. Do not follow them home and prank them or spit in their faces. All of these actions are illegal and wrong and unfair. So don't do them. OK?

And don't do it to your Senators or Congresspersons, either. Ever. And leave Tim Geithner alone, too. They all have enough trouble giving away the last of your money to the rich, especially when they've made you so poor. No, really, it really bothers them, really a lot. Really. They can hardly swallow their truffles. Really.


AIG
"AIG Corporate Home Page"
You can even visit them online.

AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP: CORPORATE
"AIG Board Of Directors"
Drop the CEO or the Chairman of the Board of Directors a line.

SUPERPAGES
"AIG Offices, USA"
Drop in at your local AIG office.

CONGRESS.ORG
"My Elected Officials"
Find and contact your federal, state, and local officials.

US TREASURY DEPARTMENT: SECRETARY TIMOTHY GEITHNER
timothy.geithner@do.treas.gov
Write your Enabler-In-Chief.

NY DAILY NEWS
"Pin AIG woes on Brooklyn boy: Joseph Cassano walked away with $315 million while company staggered"
It's good to be teh scumbag.

' At the top of the list is 54-year-old Joseph Cassano, a Brooklyn cop's kid made good who went oh so bad. As head of the Financial Products unit, Cassano racked up billions of losses while assuring investors it was nearly impossible for his unit to lose. "It is hard for us, without being flippant, to even see a scenario within any kind of [rhyme] or reason that would see us losing one dollar in any of those transactions," he told investors. Before he was finally fired last March, Cassano pocketed $280 million in cash and an additional $34 million in bonuses. Under a "retirement" agreement marked "confidential," Cassano also got a $1 million-a-month "consulting fee." To put Cassano's personal score in context, his end is three times the annual budget of his alma mater, Brooklyn College, to which he has not contributed a dime. Joseph Cassano started out at Drexel Burnham Lambert under Michael Milken, "the Junk Bond King." Drexel imploded in 1990 and Milken landed in prison. AIG promptly hired a team of Drexel people to start a Financial Products unit, Cassano among them. Cassano became the head and began dealing in securities known as "credit default swaps" out of one office in Wilton, Conn., and another in England, dubbed "the London casino." '

REUTERS
"AIG chief worried about safety after death threats"
So, now we're ALL worried.

' The head of AIG told the U.S. Congress on Wednesday he was reluctant to reveal the names of employees who took home bonuses because the troubled insurer has been receiving death threats. "All the executives and their families should be executed with piano wire around their necks," Edward Liddy, chief executive of American International Group Inc, read from one note. "I'm looking for all the CEOs' names, kids, where they live, etc.," he read from another. Liddy, who took over at AIG in September, was testifying before a congressional subcommittee investigating why the giant insurer paid out $165 million in bonuses after getting billions of dollars in a federal bailout. "I'm just really concerned about the safety of our people," Liddy said of his willingness to release the names of the bonus recipients. Barney Frank, chairman of the House of Representatives Financial Services Committee, said their identities should be made public anyway. "If we give in to these kind of threats we would never get information made public about a lot of things," he said, adding he would talk with law enforcement officials to determine the severity of the threats. '

THE TIMES OF LONDON
"Armed guards at AIG offices after death threats over bonuses"
Well, at least Blackwater has jobs.

' A wave of popular anger over the $165 million (£118 million) in bonuses received by executives of American International Group (AIG) is threatening to engulf the insurance company and cause deep damage to President Obama’s infant Administration. Armed guards have been stationed outside the Connecticut offices of AIG Financial Products (AIGFP), where death threats have been pouring in and some employees have resigned or have refused to turn up for work. Yesterday it emerged that 11 AIG workers who had received retention bonuses of $1 million or more had already left the company, stoking the anger on Capitol Hill, where Congress was threatening to introduce taxes to claw back the $165 million bonus payment to 400 staff at the division that caused its near-collapse. “AIG made more than 73 millionaires in the unit, which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout,” he wrote. “Something is deeply wrong with this outcome. I hope the committee will address it head on.” He said that it was unclear when or how they left the company or why the bonuses were paid. AIG declined to comment. '

THE AUSTRALIAN
"Obama pulled in $150,000 from AIG"
Change we can not have any of.

' BARACK Obama and New York senator Charles Schumer, leading the charge to recoup $US165million ($250million) in bonuses paid to employees of AIG, received nearly $US150,000 in campaign donations from the bailed-out US insurance giant. As the White House attempted to contain a furore that threatens to damage the President's standing, New York newspaper Newsday reported that AIG donated $US101,332 to the US President last year, second only to Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, who received $US103,100. Senator Schumer, who proposed legislation yesterday that would claw the bonuses back through a special tax of almost 100per cent on the payments, has received $US38,500 from AIG since 2000. '

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
"Critics Got Donations From Insurer "
Plus ca change.

' Among Republicans, former President George W. Bush has received the most -- $200,000 -- from AIG and its employees, followed by 2008 Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain, with $99,000. Through the 1990s and the early part of this decade, AIG's donations were evenly split between Republicans and Democrats. But starting during the 2004 election, AIG employees and its PAC started favoring Democrats. Since then, Democrats have received 60% of the $2.6 million in political donations from the company and its employees. '

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PART OF THE PROBLEM NOW PART OF THE SOLUTION?

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OBAMA NAMES ANOTHER CLINTONIAN BUSHCO REAGANAUT TO HIS CABINET

NY FED CHAIRMAN OK'ED DERIVATIVE "EXPERIMENT" & LEHMAN BROS FAILURE THAT STARTED CRISIS



But Obama Thinks He's A "Kewl Guy," So . . .

People keep saying wait and see, give Obama a chance, he's not even inaugurated yet, give him a chance to govern, benefit of the doubt, didn't make this mess, needs time to fix it, be patient, yatta-yatta-yatta. But every day brings a new old guy into the Obama Cabinet, a "new" remnant of the right-wing Carter-Reagan-Bush-Clinton-Bush years. How are THEY going to effect CHANGE when they are the very people whose numb-nuts notions caused the problems that now urgently require change? Would you let the surgeon who cut off the wrong foot operate on the other foot? Yes? Then you should work for Obama, too.

Is this really the kind of "experience" we want in this crisis? Are the fears on Wall Street that they will be called to account all we care about? I say hang the motherf*ckers, don't hire them. With a few hundred economic "experts," bureaucrats, brokers and bankers swinging from the lamp-posts of Wall Street, maybe they might get the message: Our economy is not their f*cking playground. Our jobs and homes are not their piggybank. Our country does not belong to them.

What Obama is doing instead is giving these criminals and bumbling incompetents the green light to keep right on gambling, stealing and screwing up. He's telling them that not only will there be no punishments, there will be tax-payer funded rewards. In effect, there is absolutely no difference between the Obama Administration and the last forty-three Administrations, as far as economic policy goes: The rich will always get richer, and the poor will always get poorer. The rest of us just have to bust our asses to stay out of poverty, or steal our asses off to join the rich at the hog trough.

To them it is all a game, or an academic exercise. To us, our economy, our economic system, our way of doing business is our life, and our death. Suicides and murders are up; and as the economy gets so worse, so will the violence. Families will be destroyed, children abandoned, education and careers will end, businesses will close their doors forever, whole towns will be wiped out. But to our financial elite, those are all just statistics.

Maybe they should be forced to live among us, to experience first-hand the pain their little games have caused us. Maybe if a heartbroken mother breaks down in tears right in front of them, or a disillusioned child forces one of them to witness the depths of his or her bitterness at the destruction of all their dreams, hopes and plans, or an angry father kicks their ass, then they'll get it.

The first qualification of any candidate for Treasury Secretary, or Fed Chairman, head of the FDIC or the Council of Economic Advisers or the heads of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and the SEC should be that they spend a year working in a factory and living in a cheap apartment with some other workers. Let them live the consequences of their own actions, like any convicted sociopath. Otherwise, they will just never understand. And nothing will ever change.


NY TIMES
"For Treasury, Geithner Said to Be Choice "
He broke it. Now he'll fix it? Is the gene pool THIS shallow?

' But people close to Mr. Obama say that he clicked with Mr. Geithner during a recent private meeting. The two men are the same age, 47, and Mr. Obama is closer temperamentally to the low-key and almost boyish Mr. Geithner than to the more tightly wound Mr. Summers. Mr. Summers, who will be 54 on Nov. 30, is universally described as brilliant, but is also renowned for being arrogant, occasionally rude and sometimes difficult to work with. In choosing Mr. Geithner, Mr. Obama would signal both a change at the Treasury Department and continuity in its economic rescue efforts. With the current Treasury secretary, Henry M. Paulson Jr., and Mr. Bernanke, Mr. Geithner — who as head of the New York Fed is the central bank’s eyes and ears on Wall Street — has been part of a troika that has struggled this year to contain the credit crisis. Along with Mr. Paulson and Mr. Bernanke, Mr. Geithner has come under criticism for the original construction of the $700 billion bailout plan, which had to be overhauled and has so far failed to remedy the financial crisis. But his association with the current administration’s policies is balanced by his close connections to the centrist Democratic policies of President Bill Clinton and Mr. Clinton’s best-known Treasury secretary, Robert E. Rubin. Mr. Geithner served under Mr. Rubin as well as Mr. Summers at the Treasury Department in the 1990s, and rose to be under secretary for international affairs. Michael Froman, Mr. Rubin’s former Treasury chief of staff and Mr. Obama’s classmate at Harvard Law School, is heading the economics personnel search for the transition. Mr. Froman’s head-hunting deputy is Mr. Rubin’s son, James Rubin. The Rubin wing of the Democratic Party has long been disparaged by liberals and union leaders as being too concerned with balanced budgets and free trade. But much of the ideological tension in the party has dissipated as the economy has weakened, and Mr. Obama has signaled that he intends to spend what it takes to get the economy back on track. Mr. Geithner also seems to fit Mr. Obama’s emphasis on “post-partisanship.” Associates say Mr. Geithner is an independent, though he was a Republican when he first was a staff member at the Treasury Department in the late 1980s under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George Bush. After college, he worked in the New York-based international consulting firm headed by Henry A. Kissinger. After leaving the Treasury Department, Mr. Geithner worked at the International Monetary Fund until he was hired in 2003 as president of the New York Fed. As the bank’s president, Mr. Geithner has had a seat on the Federal Open Market Committee, which sets short-term interest rates. He spent two years studying the complexities of the new credit derivatives that spread financial risk, but also exacerbated the economic downturn when the credit squeeze set in. “The fact that the banks are stronger and risk is spread more broadly should make the system more stable,” Mr. Geithner said in an interview in early 2007. “We can’t know that with certainty, though. We’ll have a test of that when things next threaten to fall apart.” The test began later that year as the housing credit crisis took hold. Working closely with Mr. Bernanke, Mr. Geithner early this year engineered the $30 billion bailout of Bear Stearns. Since September, the two of them and Mr. Paulson together have steered the government takeover of the mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, bailouts of American International Group and a number of financial institutions, and the design of the $700 billion bailout program. Mr. Geithner has also had a part in some high-profile missteps, including the government’s decision to allow Lehman Brothers to fail; some experts say that destabilized markets and helped to spread the financial contagion globally. '

WASHINGTON POST
"A Treasury Contender Schooled in Crisis"
He was for it before he was against it. Too late!

' For the Obama administration, Geithner's appointment would offer a sense of continuity at Treasury. He has, after all, worked closely with Paulson and Fed chairman Ben S. Bernanke. But with continuity comes baggage. As president of the New York Fed -- one of 12 regional outposts that regulate banks and help set the nation's monetary policy -- Geithner has been the central bank's chief emissary to Wall Street as it has disintegrated. In speeches during the years leading up to the crisis, Geithner repeatedly raised concerns about frailties in the financial system -- pointing out, for example, weaknesses in the settlement and clearing systems by which financial transactions occur and the absence of oversight in the market for obscure financial products known as derivatives. But many of those speeches ultimately concluded with Geithner suggesting the financial system was becoming more stable rather than less. He did not wage aggressive campaigns on Wall Street or Capitol Hill to step up regulation. "The changes in credit markets that have accompanied the latest wave of innovation in derivatives and the large role played by leveraged financial institutions in those markets may exacerbate some of the traditional sources of challenges in financial markets," Geithner said in a 2006 speech in Hong Kong. But, he continued, "On balance, we believe these changes in the financial environment are likely to come with substantial benefits in terms of overall market efficiency." In fact, derivatives and leveraged financial institutions have been major reasons for the financial crisis, which is the most severe since the Great Depression. '

BUSINESS WEEK
"Geithner: Obama's Likely Treasury Choice"
Oh, good: No business experience or education. Well, not NO experience. Just some very BAD experience.

' "As much as you want some fresh ideas in there, I think at this point in time, having some continuity in there is a good thing," said Frederick Cannon, chief equity strategist at the research firm Keefe Bruyette & Woods. "The main thing the markets need is confidence." Still, Geithner's key role in the government's response to the financial crisis in recent months has garnered him his share of criticism. Take, for example, this passage from the recent issue of Institutional Risk Analyst, an influential newsletter written by managing director Christopher Whalen of Institutional Risk Analytics: "We have only two things to say about Tim Geithner, who we do not know: AIG and Lehman Brothers. Throw in the Bear, Stearns…fiasco for good measure. All of these 'rescues' are a disaster for the taxpayer, for the financial markets, and also for the Federal Reserve System as an organization. Geithner, in our view, deserves retirement, not promotion." With a bachelor's degree in government and Asian studies from Dartmouth College and a master's in international economics from Johns Hopkins, Geithner may not be an academic economist or an ex-Wall Street banker or corporate executive, a break with the recent past. At the same time, he is no stranger to handling economic crises that are international in scope. Critics warned that the move could encourage greater risk-taking by financial firms newly confident of a government bailout should they falter. Joseph Mason, an associate finance professor at Drexel University, told American Banker in May that the deal "opened a Pandora's box" and Geithner's role suggested that he is prone to "ideas that are just not always completely articulated or thought out." Geithner, however, has been unapologetic about his actions last spring. He has said the distress sale was the "only feasible option." '

PORTFOLIO.COM
"The Man Who Saved (or Got Suckered by) Wall Street"
Ah! No WONDER Wall Street loves him! He's their bitch!

' Geithner was the central figure in that drama. It was Geithner’s Federal Reserve bank, not the Treasury, that came up with the $29 billion loan that made the deal possible or, more precisely, acceptable to J.P. Morgan. Geithner brought the parties together, hashed out the details, and demanded answers when things got shaky. It was a heady role for a noneconomist who has, to put it kindly, only on-the-job training in the financial markets and who relies on an A-list inner circle. Officially, his advisers include the board of the New York Fed, which counts several heads of financial institutions as members. Unofficially, he has built an impressive career with the help of a number of kingmakers, including some with a financial interest in the industry he oversees. Thus Geithner reports to a board that is composed of people who are not only under his purview but would also benefit from any potential bailouts. The structure of the New York Fed’s board bears more than a passing resemblance to that of the New York Stock Exchange in the bad old days, when member firms, regulated by the N.Y.S.E., were heavily represented on its board. '

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