High Noon: Tim Geithner Meets The Banksters-- High Fives All The Way Around

The Bush Regime, with its last dying breathe disbursed over $300 billion to a gaggle of larcenous banksters-- with no strings and no accountability, and precious few records. It was another in a serious of outrageous heists from the most crooked regime to ever seize power in the United States. So far we know that virtually none of the money went into what Congress thought it was going for-- thawing the credit freeze that is strangling the nation's economy-- and that at least $18.4 billion went directly into the pockets of the banksters in the form of "bonuses." No one is in prison-- not one single bankster and not one single Bush Regimist. In fact, not one single penny-- let alone-- billion-- has been recovered.

But yesterday President Obama told us that "even as they [the criminal banksters] petitioned for taxpayer assistance, Wall Street firms shamefully paid out nearly $20 billion in bonuses for 2008... [Americans will not tolerate] such arrogance and greed." I'm so glad to hear that; I was afraid we would tolerate it, just as we tolerated all the crimes perpetrated by the Bush crew and their allies. So, how is our refusal to tolerate the theft going to manifest itself? I certainly hope Bush will be tried and not summarily executed (although, speaking personally and not for anyone else associated with this blog, I'd be less scrupulous about the details of what happens to Cheney). And the banksters? I assume the money they stole has already gone back into the treasury and they have been fined for their total net worths and are now learning what it is like to be on the other side of the class war, right?

Not exactly. President Obama, post-partisan that he is, is talking about how "We’ll help lower mortgage costs and extend loans to small businesses so they can create jobs," and make sure that CEOs are no longer "draining funds that should be advancing our recovery,” and that assistance to the financial system would be accompanied by “unprecedented transparency, rigorous oversight and clear accountability, so taxpayers know how their money is being spent and whether it is achieving results.” That's good. But is that before or after Bush is drawn and quartered and John Thain is offered a blindfold and last cigarette?

None of that but there is a discussion going on that may possibly someday lead to restrictions on executive pay. Maybe Obama will have Judd Gregg make the judgment calls. And then they'll give the banks another $350 billion... take that, you naughty, naught boys!

I say lock them all up in Guantanamo-- and let Marcy Kaptur decide what stress positions would be most useful towards restoring all that they have stolen.