More On DeSantis

Jake DeSantis, the new John Galt, is certainly getting his 15 minutes of fame for resigning from AIG in a public hissy fit, and I called the guy a sanctimonius asshole. BooMan asks me:

Is he an asshole because we works at AIGFP, because he lectured you, or because he's culpable for some reason?

My response is a little long, but it boils down to this (do go over to the Frog Pond and check out the thread):

He's trying to unwind it? Great. He still made more money than most of us will ever see when he wasn't so indignant towards his employer. He still had some oversight as an executive VP in the financial products division. He could have questioned or stopped or raised doubts then.

Instead his division lost a shitload of money because it got greedy and got burned. He failed. The fact that he still had a job to quit after doing that should offend every human being on Earth, and then he turns around and calculates the price of his indulgence to the People as his bonus, then expects us to forgive him and others like him on Wall Street...the same people who failed to show the restraint two years ago that could have curtailed this mess are now saying "Well fixing this is hard work!" and expecting us to feel sorry for them.

That's what makes this guy an asshole. Americans take responsibility for their actions every day. These guys only did it when it became politically expedient to do so, for the express purpose of absolution of guilt.

And that's what really burned me. Yes, Congress's 90% tax was a dog and pony show. They are politicians and made a political move.

But that doesn't excuse DeSantis's obviously manipulatory resignation letter that mysteriously ends up in the Op-Ed Page of the Liberal Communist Socialist NY F'cking Times. There's a reason I keep using the word absolution. He wants America to forgive him for his sins so he can sleep better at night.

And that is one luxury Jake DeSantis can't buy. Not with all the bailout money in the world.

Like The Five-Second Rule, Only Without Crud On Your Food

Doug at Balloon Juice:

Anything short of a tax holiday and another round of deregulation is communism. It’s the Rick Santelli rule.

Troof.

In Which Zandar Answers Your Burning Questions

At the Frog Pond, Steven D asks:

Do we really need the F-22 Raptor?

Let's run my F-22 Raptor Iraqi Adventure Game!

"YOU are CAPT. BUCK "THUNDERNUTS" JOHNSON, USAF. Your mission is to destroy TERRORISTS with your F-22 RAPTOR! Good luck! America is counting on you!"

>takeoff

You take off from the runway.

>fly

Yes, you are.

>north

You fly north.

You are now over Iraq. There is a TERRORIST here.

>look at terrorist

You've seen one, Capt. Johnson, you've seen them all.

>shoot terrorist

With WHAT do you want to shoot the TERRORIST?

>shoot terrorist with missile

You shoot a MISSILE at the TERRORIST.

You miss!

You hit HOUSE! HOUSE takes 1432 points of damage! HOUSE is destroyed! You gain 12 XP. You are penalized 1 COLLATERAL DAMAGE POINT (CDP).

>shoot terrorist with missile

You shoot a MISSILE at the TERRORIST.

You miss!

You hit SCHOOL! SCHOOL takes 1245 points of damage! SCHOOL is critically damaged! You are penalized 3 COLLATERAL DAMAGE POINTS (CDP).

TERRORIST attacks with AK-47!

TERRORIST misses you!

>dammit

Yeah, I know.

>kill terrorist

You're trying your best. You do have an F-22 RAPTOR you know.

>shoot terrorist with all remaining missiles

You shoot terrorist with METRIC CRAPTON OF MISSILES!

You miss!

You hit MOSQUE! MOSQUE takes 27549 points of damage! MOSQUE is destroyed! You gain 255 XP. You are penalized 148 COLLATERAL DAMAGE POINTS (CDP).

CHUNK OF EXPLODED MOSQUE flies at TERRORIST!

CHUNK OF EXPLODED MOSQUE hits! TERRORIST takes 47 points of damage. TERRORIST dies! You gain 3 XP.

>celebrate

You party down.

>south

You fly back to base.

>land

You land your F-22 RAPTOR.

>exit plane

You get out of the plane. THE ADMIRAL is here. You have EXCEEDED your quota of COLLATERAL DAMAGE POINTS (CDS) on this mission! YOU LOSE! IRAQ ERUPTS INTO JIHAD!

Game over.

"Maaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaan, what a ripoff."

Zandar's Thought Of The Day

Happiness is watching Rachel Maddow and Matt Taibbi discussing the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act.

It just is, okay?

Oh Somebody Up There Likes Me Today

...because Michele Bachmann is blogging at Townhall.

It's vital that we ask questions of this Administration as it continues to insert itself into the private sector. Most recently, it's reported that the Obama Administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury Secretary the authority to take over non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds.

Giving the Secretary this authority would be an unprecedented transfer of power to the federal government. The current model for regulating the financial markets relies on independent agencies that are independent from the political process.

Oh man, this is like Christmas and Pi Day rolled up into one. "Unprecedented transfer of power?" Is this woman possibly serious? Has she forgotten the last eight years of George W. Bush's "plenary executive?" Has she forgotten the torture, and the wiretapping, and the firing of US attorneys, and subornation of science in the name of politics, the massive expansion of Dick Cheney's supposed powers, the politicization of every possible duty of the Executive all in the name of George W. Bush being above the law?

Better yet, has she thought for a second that we somehow forgot this when we elected Barack Obama?

How stupid can this woman be?

LEAVE THE GALTIES ALOOOOOOONE

Much is being made of the publicly printed resignation letter of AIG executive VP Jake DeSantis. The letter ended up in the NY Times Op-Ed section.

I am proud of everything I have done for the commodity and equity divisions of A.I.G.-F.P. I was in no way involved in — or responsible for — the credit default swap transactions that have hamstrung A.I.G. Nor were more than a handful of the 400 current employees of A.I.G.-F.P. Most of those responsible have left the company and have conspicuously escaped the public outrage.

After 12 months of hard work dismantling the company — during which A.I.G. reassured us many times we would be rewarded in March 2009 — we in the financial products unit have been betrayed by A.I.G. and are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials. In response to this, I will now leave the company and donate my entire post-tax retention payment to those suffering from the global economic downturn. My intent is to keep none of the money myself.

The Galties are hailing him as a hero, giving us dire warnings that as American workers any of us could be next. My response:

Dear Mr. DeSantis:

The millions of Americans who were denied the choice of your noble gesture to resign and donate your bonus because of the damage your company wrought upon the financial landscape of the globe, the millions of families were forced to sacrifice and pay for your mistakes while they have to resort to the indignity of assistance to make ends meet, the millions of Americans kicked out of their homes or rental properties having to uproot their lives to make other arrangements, and the millions of Americans who are personally offended at being lectured at by a man such as yourself who can no doubt afford to donate your bonus, all have but one question to ask you.

Where's my $182.5 billion, you sanctimonious asshole?

Next time, try returning that money. Then -- and only then -- you will have regained permission to speak of how your rights as a free-market capitalist are being impinged upon by the government -- the same government from which your company so freely took a staggering 12-digit sum of money from and which we know will never be paid back in my lifetime -- and only then will your gesture begin to count as having corrected the balance in the universe.

Until then, have fun finding a job in this economy.

Sincerely,

Zandar

P.S. You're still an asshole.

[UPDATE] Obligatory constructive criticism because I just might have been a skosh hard on this guy: If you really want to help unwind the mess your company made, I hear Treasury is looking for people. Also, don't throw hissy fits in the NY Times next time you feel like resigning out of guilt. That's what blogs are for.

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