I find it very strange that the authors of the current stream of government approved legislation authorizing stimulus and bailout funding destined to bankrupt our nation are all of a sudden erupting in a vesuvius of self-righteous indignation because some AIG employee's were paid exhorbinate bonuses using TARP/Stimulus money.

I am not saying that these bonus payments are justified or not. But this verbal outrage strikes me as hypercritical. If they, the original drafters of this legislation, along with the voters in the House and Senate (who by all accounts did not read these bills before voting) are now so outraged then why did they allow these provisions to be added without objection?

Rep. Earl Pomeroy and Sen. Kent Conrad have both added their voices of condemnation to the bonus payments after the fact (I don't know what Sen. Byron Dorgan has said publicly).

I find this type of after-the-fact-rhetoric insulting, disgusting and totally unnecessary. A sham at best, and a diversion from the real issues. If they - Democrats and Republicans alike - are so incensed and feel they have to vent their anger on the backs of innocent employee's that apparently had legal contractual agreements for these bonus payments, then what happens to other legal business arrangements?

There is no doubt that we are facing a financial mess. Maybe we need (it will be a cold-day-in-North Dakota before we get it) a full-fledged grand jury investigation of the key players within this group of self-serving elected and appointed (so called) public servants, starting with Messrs Paulson, Ben Bernanke, Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank and Timothy Geithner. Next we should re-evaluate the purpose of the Federal Reserve System. If we want to preserve our freedom, then we must be willing to work at it.