Lets ban political contributions to any candidate, of any party, for any office by any company that receives bailout money, until the money is paid back in full. Taxpayer money should not be used to pay for political donations designed to influence how the taxpayer money is spent.

Yet you would condone giving millions in the way of a bonus to ex-employees of said failing company?

And telling people to whom they can make political contributions sounds just a bit... ummm I don't know... communist?

How about this analogy: The Detroit L:ions are the worst team ever in the NFL, yet some players got a bonus, one of the common bonuses in the NFL is the roster bonus, if a player is still on the team at a certain time, they get a bonus. That's what it sounds like the AIG bonus was---it may have been stupid to pay to retain these short term thinking flim flam men, but there you go, that's capitalism for you. Short term, heedless of long term damage. All you can try to do at this point is 1. appeal to their better natures===they don't have any or 2. renegotiate the bonus by applying pressure----we don't have any leverage, so pay the goddam thing and re-structure the financial system so next time we can try and fry these guys.

"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be." -- Thomas Jefferson

We live in a society exquisitely dependent on science and technology, in which hardly anyone knows anything about science and technology. - Carl Sagan

I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity an obligation; every possession, a duty. - John D. Rockefeller, Jr.