What I think none of us understands is why any money was given to AIG without stipulations about how it could be spent. With the past fiasco under Bush, why was money sent out without nailing down exactly where it would go? It makes it seem that the people who Obama has selected (Geitner and Summers in particular) are too cozy with Wall Street to be trusted to act in the taxpayer's interests.

Now with the money already out the door, handwringing and wailing about how terrible it is will not satisfy enraged taxpayers. The only thing that counts is how to get it back. Whether that is forcing AIG into bankruptcy and restructuring (or taking over management in some other way) or perhaps 100% tax for bonuses already payed with bailout money....whatever it takes, it should be done. The fact that AIG went in this direction is proof positive that the current management is incompetent. There is no "best and brightest" to be retained by bonuses, only the greedy and most shameless.

For the mid-term elections, we should be taking notice, not of what our representatives and senators have said about the mess that they continue to make, but about what they actually did. Actions speak louder than words is an old saw, but a true one, and what we need to pay heed to now.