Happy Pig of the Week Award Goes to AIG Executives

So what did the executives of A.I.G. do after getting a government bailout? They spent over $400,000.00 on a "retreat" to a posh resort. This is from an article by the Associated Press:

Days after it got a federal bailout, American International Group Inc. spent $440,000on a posh California retreat for its executives, complete with spa treatments, banquets and golf outings, according to lawmakers investigating the company's meltdown.

AIG sent its executives to the coastal St. Regis resort south of Los Angeles even as the company tapped into an $85 billion loan from the government it needed to stave off bankruptcy. The resort tab included $23,380 worth of spa treatments for AIG employees, according to invoices the resort turned over to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee

Not suprisingly the members of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee were not too happy about this. Here is what Chairman Harry Waxman had to say about it:

"Average Americans are suffering economically. They're losing their jobs, their homes and their health insurance. "Yet less than one week after the taxpayers rescued AIG, company executives could be found wining and dining at one of the most exclusive resorts in the nation."

During the presidential debate at Nashville on Tuesday, October 7, 2008, Senator Barack Obama called for the executives who planned the retreat to be fired.

For their incredible chuptzah, the exeuctives who planned the retreat, and the executives who attended it, are why we give A.I.G. our "Happy Pig of the Week" award.

You can read the entire AP article here.

Bush Administration Sent Billions Into Iraq Right After Saddam's Fall

It turns out that the Bush Administration sent billions of dollars into Iraq after Saddam's fall. The money came from Iraqi funds that had been frozen in America and came from Iraqi oil revenues. Here's the problem: they don't know what happened to the money or where it went. Now, they claim that the money didn't fall into the hands of insurgents, but let's face it, they really don't know that our troops aren't being wounded or killed by weapons purchased with this money. This fact came out during testimony in front of the House Committee on Government Operations and Oversight chaired by Rep. Harry Waxman, (D-CA). You can click on the link in this entry's title to read more about this.