Bull**** Filter

I, like most of the American public, am pissed off about the bonus fiasco at AIG. But it\’s $165 million out of what, $170 billion that has been pushed into that quagmire of financial incompetence. One tenth of one percent! That\’s equivalent to the cost of a newspaper in the weekly budget of a upper-middle-class home! (Oh, Harriet! Don\’t tell me you bought another newspaper this week! Do you think I\’m made out of money?)

Our illustrious elected officials in Washington have spent a week flailing their arms and tongues blathering about the outrageously inept actions of Tim Geithner in mismanaging this \”scandal\”, when, by all reports the $165 million in bonuses was in the bailout plan for AIG before it was approved by Congress. For those keeping score at home, this deal was approved by the same lot now excoriating Geithner. Why, then, is everybody, including President Obama, \”shocked\” to find out about it? Don\’t they read the bills they are voting on? Don\’t they at least have lackies to do their reading for them? They\’re all standing there at the plate, watching the guy behind the left field dugout waving the big foam finger.

Meanwhile, what\’s been happening with the other $164,835,000,000 that was pushed into AIG? Who knows? They\’ve been watching the bonuses!

This comes a couple of weeks after writing \”earmarks\” into a $400 billion \”stimulus\” package until it became a $700 billion spending bill – that\’s $700,000,000,000 – 4242 times the amount of the bonuses.

Change? Doesn\’t sound like change to me.

Well, there might be more than one, but I got this email today:

Even to the casual observer, there are a number of things wrong:

1. From: \”greetingcard.org\” but email is from \”lovells.com\”
2. To: \”dear friend\” – somebody sending me a card might know my name
3. Card link is \”pieralbrechtdr.com/e-card.exe\” an EXE for Pete\’s sake! Can you get any more transparent in your evil intentions?
4. Various typos and misspellings (\”aviailable\”, \”enjoy you eCard\”) sure put that \”professional polish\” on the presentation

Needless to say, I didn\’t click on the link (though with Thunderbird as my email agent and Firefox 3 as my browser, I\’d likely get out of it OK).

If you should happen to find an email like this addressed to you, just discard it. It\’s only going to cause you problems in the long run. Really.

Well, there might be more than one, but I got this email today:

Even to the casual observer, there are a number of things wrong:

1. From: \”greetingcard.org\” but email is from \”lovells.com\”
2. To: \”dear friend\” – somebody sending me a card might know my name
3. Card link is \”pieralbrechtdr.com/e-card.exe\” an EXE for Pete\’s sake! Can you get any more transparent in your evil intentions?
4. Various typos and misspellings (\”aviailable\”, \”enjoy you eCard\”) sure put that \”professional polish\” on the presentation

Needless to say, I didn\’t click on the link (though with Thunderbird as my email agent and Firefox 3 as my browser, I\’d likely get out of it OK).

If you should happen to find an email like this addressed to you, just discard it. It\’s only going to cause you problems in the long run. Really.

Dear Winner,
Winning Notification
This is to notify you that you have won £850,000.00 in our
online email lottery in which e-mail addresses are picked
randomly by computerised balloting, powered by the Internet.
Your email address was amongst those chosen for this period.
Ticket no: 56475600545 188
Serial no: 5368/02
Winning number: 08.11.21.32.35.42. {47}
Draw (#1187)
To claim your prize, please contact:
Mr Robert Hache, Email:
robertdyne@gmail.com +447031981852
Yours faithfully,
Howrey, Mary
Online Coordinator