One man’s voice Thoughts, rants and commentary from a husband, father of five and professional web geek

Failure is the style of the day

In light of the recent "will of the people" to save failing banks and our tanking economy, and in keeping with the tradition of rewarding failure with lots and lots of taxpayer cash, I felt it appropriate to write about two stories that have me wondering when the government funding of stupidity and management failure will eventually trickle down to me.

I read a few days ago that AIG, one of the earliest recipients of government money for the purpose of saving a dying business, is seeking to restructure their obligation to the government while at the same time asking for more money. Apparently the billions that were "lent" to AIG were not enough to keep them financially sound for more than a few months. Now, they need more AND they need to be let off the hook for what they have been given. Dude, where can I get some of that?

In other banking related news, it was reported by TMZ.com that Northern Trust, a bank that received $1.6 Billion in federal bailout money, spent a gob of cash on a sponsorship of the Northern Trust Open golf tournament at the Riviera Country Club in L.A. The story was also picked up by The Chicago Tribune, which reported a response to the original news report by a spokesperson from Northern Trust. Can anyone say back pedalling?

With all of this "rescuing" being offered by the government to these humongous corporations and organizations, I cannot help but be reminded of some of the presidential campaign promises the Obamasiah made when running for our votes. Some of those things revolved around the premise that he would work for the middle class, working family and that big business has benefited enough from past administrations. Forgive me if I sound a little ignorant here, but exactly how does taking more of our money and handing it over to a collection of large, irresponsible financial institutions equate to helping the middle class working family and not benefiting large corporations? Any idiot with a pen and an elected office could have done that. I thought we elected hope, change and a new sense of patriotism?

Oh well, maybe one day, when every American has lost their house and people are killing one another in the streets to bring a piece of bread home for their families, the large banks that are throwing these lavish parties will open their restrooms for us so we can clean up a little bit. It's the least they can do for us, seeing as we are the ones paying for their banquets, their marketing, their airplanes, their bonuses, their salaries and other niceties that they would have to forego without out money.