LOL There's a myth about that?

I'm attending the one in Dallas. My hope is that the 15th will be so huge nationwide that the MSM WON'T be able to ignore it!!

I think it's more along the lines that this is exactly why we should NEVER be bailing out private corporations.

On the one hand, I agree that it's taxpayer money and shouldn't be spent frivolously, but on the other, we GAVE the money to them. We already spent it; it's not ours anymore. This is what we wanted - give them the money and let them continue as a business. Well, this is how they run as a business.

If we're going to use the money from bailouts as a way to take government control of the private corporations that accept the money, then it's not merely a bailout at all: it's a government take over, and it should be stated as such. Not only to the corporation requesting to be "bought up," but to We the People so we know exactly what we're doing. If a Government Takeover is what Dodd and Geithner wanted in the first place, then they never should have called it a bailout, and they should have written out a clear set of bylaws or whatever that dictated exactly what the government was going to control.

I get your point, and agree to some extent... Mostly, in fact. But it's kind of like the paparazzi: there are some lines that shouldn't be crossed.

Now I'd never support the government coming in and legislating where those lines are, but we as Americans should know. Just because we disagree with each other doesn't mean we're anything less than fellow countrymen & women. If you want to protest AIG executives, I'd expect you to have the balls to show up to the corporation to do such, not to harass their families into feeling the need to hire security. The White House is a little different in that it is simultaneously the place where the President works and where he lives with his family. Tough breaks for the President, but he should know what he's getting into.

I think it's a point of civility. These people are only coming across as frothy, foaming-at-the-mouth jealous, greedy hypocrites. I feel no sympathy for any of their plights because of how they're going about their protests.

I might be completely off, but I don't think what AIG did really was so crappy. Yes, $165 million in bonuses paid by the taxpayer is unseemly, but "we" bailed them out! We said, "AIG, we don't want you to fail." So they continued as usual. They did exactly what "we" (I wasn't in favor of the bailouts) wanted them to do: be a business who's trying to be successful at what they do so they can get back on their feet and remain competitive.

If we're gonna bail out businesses, that's one thing. It's a terrible and stupid thing in and of itself. But if we're going to use bailouts as a means to excuse government getting its hands into private business, that goes so much farther than simply handing out "corporate welfare." It's more than a bailout then; it's a government takeover.

What I can't believe, aside from the whole situation regarding AIG, is that those protesters are claiming that greedy people shouldn't get any money, yet they're delivering letters to these executives that already GAVE up their bonuses demanding that they now pay higher taxes, as well!

I don't deny that greed exists in the upper echelons in corporations, but 1) that's their business and 2) they're not the ones picketing citizens' houses demanding money from someone else's paycheck!! The greedy ones in this story are not the executives. I cannot believe the hypocrisy and arrogance...