CNN Caller Says AIG Execs Should Be Shot (VIDEO)

So, I'll be the first to admit, when I was musing on what's to become of the AIG's bonus babies, I indulged in a little "extreme clawback" fantasia, tweeting, "WIRE FANS: Obviously, in a perfect world, we'd be siccing Omar on AIG." And we've all heard Senator Charles Grassley invoke the tradition of seppuku. But, look, one of the things that's come out of today's testimony is that some of the people involved over at AIG have received death threats, and that some of these threats may have extended to these executives wives and kids.

Not cool, no matter what the circumstance, so I feel bad about joking about Omar. That said, even I'm a little mystified that CNN aired this:

CALLER: Hey, Rick, it's your buddy Angry Bob in New York. Those AIG bums, hey, I've got to tell you something. Did you hear what they did to the melamine guys in China that spiked the milk with poison? Up against the wall. So I think we should get all the AIG guys bonuses in the form of full metal jackets. Enough of these guys. We've got to tear them apart. America first, and rich and obnoxious people second.

Okay. Let's everybody just chill for a second.

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Comments

[hemnebob]

04:34 PM on 03/19/2009

well after reading about some of the failing firms that are recipients of bailout monies
and the facts that some of them are deliquent in taxes???
not so sure i disagree with the caller...
these wealthy ceo's and the likes of them, believe that they need to take everything
while they can but this is going on for decades and nobody penalized them because
of all the government deregulations!!! these stinkin b@st@rds are getting away with it.
they take their monies and buy home/estates in florida and own these glamourous places
while the rest of the country bails them out to only take more of the taxpayer's funds
and burn through that too....
why they are getting fired is beyond me, why would we expect them to behave in any
other way than how they have been behaving for all these years past???

[selfgrowth]

04:25 PM on 03/22/2009

I’ve heard of Angry Bob, he’s a funny comedian so I think this is just a joke....why is everybody scaring people when it’s probably just a joke??

[charitabledonation]

01:16 PM on 03/19/2009

I can't help but wonder why we are so focused on 143 million in bonuses compared to 163 BILLION in monies that AIG has given away willy nilly to its counterparties?

Yes, our misdirected anger, thanks to the manipulation of the media (once again), will cause our own government officials to focus on the bonuses and NOT the fact that this money from AIG went to Goldman Sacs (hint hint--Paulson's old chums) and others just like. AIG is a FILTER of public tax dollars to companies that should, by all other accounts, BE FAILING.

Michael Hudson at michael-hudson.com has a more detailed account at the misdirection of this populist outrage.

Why are we not asking the questions about the couterparties? Well, because our so-called leaders want to give away EVEN MORE of our tax dollars to these guys. It is seriously wrong, sick and wrought with Moral Hazzard.

[Timothy Hoppa]

12:40 PM on 03/19/2009

Isn't this exactly why we should give a rats a** about what the people watching the news think about it? Report it only.

[cheesymacaroni]

11:00 AM on 03/19/2009

Personally, I kind of like Colbert's plan. Make some brackets. Put these dudes mano-o-mano in the Thunderdome with a crowd of angry, unemployed taxpayers and let them duke it out. The survivor gets to go to jail.

There is no peace without justice.

[OkieIntellectual]

03:51 PM on 03/19/2009

"Two men enter, one man leaves! Two men enter, one man leaves!" Haha, I have a great mental picture of two slightly paunchy middle-aged men in shredded trousers and dirty, torn Armani shirts circling each other with a look of fear and self-preserving panic in their eyes. Oh yeah, and Tina Turner all decked out in that chainmail dress looking down on them, smiling.

[numi]

10:34 AM on 03/19/2009

The Republicanite objective is nearly achieved. Welcome to indentured servitude. However...

What the elite money spinners fail to understand is that desperate people with no future and little present have nothing to lose. Nothing. And payback feels so sweet as it accomplishes nothing.

An economic system based entirely on greed (capitalism) will inevitably collapse as greed has no limits or boundaries. Greed only works for itself.

This is the great disconnect in economics. None of the theories or plans account for greed. As though it doesn't exist.

I suggest that the prisons be emptied of low level druggies to make room for the criminals yet to be discovered. As we dig deeper into the practices of the financiers, we will discover that the entire capitalist sysytem is a house of cards. The bad news from AIG will keep coming. The next big oopsie? Re-insurance. It's an even bigger scam than Madoff's Ponzie scheme.

We are so screwed.

[OlongapoEd]

10:47 AM on 03/19/2009

When you ain't got nothin'
You got nothin' to lose

[camper65]

12:04 PM on 03/19/2009

Show me just ONE economic system that isn't based on greed - just one!

[OkieIntellectual]

03:54 PM on 03/19/2009

Hmmm, well theres communism, which has a basic tennant of "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need." Unfortunately communism works only on a small scale, and it too does not take human greed into account.

[paintitblack]

10:29 AM on 03/19/2009

Can't say I completely agree with the caller, but I'm glad at least SOMEONE out there is angry. There are still too many complacent, ignorant people right now... hello, America?? Is it that you like getting effed in the arse or what?

[rabiddog6708]

09:48 AM on 03/19/2009

Reaganomics: the rich get very rich and the poor can gripe about it but do nothing. America sold its soul nearly 30 years ago. Very few complained as the wealth was redistributed by cutting income tax on the top and raising payroll taxes that disapportionately affect the poor and lower class. The corporations sold out America by sending jobs overseas to cheap labor markets.....and most were silent until it was their jobs being sent abroad, until they could not find good paying jobs. Still, Americans used the equity in their artifically-valued homes to continue to live the good life until this bubble burst. Now they are angry, but now it is too late.....the corporate suits have your money and your good jobs and way of life are gone and they ain't coming back.

[hemnebob]

04:40 PM on 03/19/2009

yep...
and all those people praise ronnie as the best.
one has to wonder that if you deregulate everything then how do you
protect your own???
example...you deregulate and you get lead in the paint/coatings of the toys
imported from china...
you deregulate and you get melamine in your dogfoods to kill your pets...
you deregulate and you get the crooks at the suit level to steal and maim your
economy...

yep, the rich get richer and the rest of us pay for it all!!

[ChristopherAtom]

09:46 AM on 03/19/2009

An eye for an eye and the goes blind.
Cutting the head off a daisy wont get rid of the weed(criminals), you must dig down in the soil(humanity) to the root(the monetary system) and remove it, otherwise the weeds will just keep coming back.

[11907281]

10:43 AM on 03/19/2009

I mostly agree with you but the last few years have seen the extinction of justice and accountability, what example does this leave for the rest of us? It is only wrong if you get caught, and even then, if you know the right people ... sad.

[ram1952]

09:25 AM on 03/19/2009

I was angry with my friend
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe:
I told it not, my wrath did grow.

- William Blake, A Poison Tree

Let the anger come out. It is better that it is articulated in rants rather than through guns. There are a lot of guns floating around and a lot of guys thrown out of their houses, losing their 401Ks are very, very angry and very frustrated. And people who are against gun control, like those rich, Repub-supporting bankers and financial hot shots (oops! wrong word) should be pleading with the Congress and the President to ban guns.

[aweissnet]

08:57 AM on 03/19/2009

I don't mind seeing people hurt, as long as it's the right ones.

These people caused suffering on a massive scale, the ripple effect will not be known for some time.

Time to hold people ACCOUNTABLE for their crimes. What is white collar crime? When people die, starve, and lose their lives and homes as a result of it, does that not count?

I'm tired of the favoritism to rich suits in this country. We treat them like royalty, rather than the criminals they really are. Treat them that way, and this country will be on it's way to major improvement, and a civilized society.

[briloker]

09:34 AM on 03/19/2009

Time to start up Operation Mayhem

[OkieIntellectual]

03:59 PM on 03/19/2009

I never thought I'd say it, but that is really starting to sound like an excellent and appropriate thing to do.

[ChristopherAtom]

09:51 AM on 03/19/2009

They will just buy favoritism. Money, as long as it exists, will only lead to corruption. This is a fact that is thousands of years old.

[aweissnet]

08:59 PM on 03/19/2009

Yes, to expect mankind to live up to a standard one would expect of "humanity" was just too much, for some aberrant strains of the bunch. Or is it just part and parcel of "human?"

I have no inclination to cause mayhem, destruction, death, homelessness, hunger or anything else, for my gain. I've run a business and never bilked a soul. Probably gave more than was expected, at that.

[vancedecker]

08:16 AM on 03/19/2009

In the words of Dick Cheney: "So!?"

[Betsie]

08:08 AM on 03/19/2009

I don't want anyone hurt (especially the families of these greedy AIG people) but think of the families that are now living on the street because of greedy people.

I now see women standing on the street corners begging for help some with their children.

Think about it, they have no where SAFE to sleep at night and these mothers have no way to feed their children and protect them.

These women and probably the children too are being raped and abused.

The greedy monsters who did this have no souls and those we put in power to protect us HAVE NOT, so what do we do?

[aweissnet]

08:58 AM on 03/19/2009

Well, seems to me, my last act as a homeless person might be some justice, eh? They're already as far down as they can get. What's a little civil unrest?

Of course, I guess it's kind of hard to band together and organize when you're homeless and without resources, but they need to do that, and hold the people accountable who put them there.

[grf67]

05:33 AM on 03/19/2009

So we have the media inflaming an already bad issue and a few nut cases threatening folks with death. There is nothing good here and there is enough blame to go around.

[breakingpoint]

03:04 AM on 03/19/2009

if it bleeds it leads.
typical yellow journalism

CNN like all corporations making money come first, then stock holders than the public

Which is why we should charge these welfare cheats RENT for using The Public's airwaves and wires.

irresponsibility has a price

[susie1776]

02:55 AM on 03/19/2009

It's comments like these that are precisely why Mr Liddy does not want to divulge the names of employees who received the retention incentives. We have entirely too many wacky people with access to automatic weapons!!!

[loki]

03:50 AM on 03/19/2009

Not wacky. mad. Mad that the rich get special treatment, and that we , the working people, are forced to bail them out from the mistakes they made. We also are getting hurt by their mistakes too.
Oh, and they dont have automatic weapons. Semi auto yes. Not many full autos.

[Deaninphilly]

07:13 AM on 03/19/2009

I wonder what the talk was before in France when Marie met her fate? I'm sure it was something like this. The only difference is they didn't have people like you trying to take their weapons away. Unless you're one of these "elite" you're only helping them by taking away what little defenses us "little" people have.

People pushed will eventually be pushed too far and begin to push back. History by all accounts is begining to repeat itself, perhaps not exactly as before but close enough.

[ConcernedAboutRFuture]

07:22 AM on 03/19/2009

Well said.