Citiboobs Get Grounded

 
There's nothing more to do for me than to just sit here in the 5 a.m. hour with java in hand, and shake my head not only in disbelief at what Citibank tried to pull with its $50 million corporate jet, the exclusive Dassault Falcon 7X, after losing $28.5 billion in the past 15 months and receiving $345 billion in government investments and guarantees, but almost ready to give up on this system which breeds nothing but gluttonous consumption, greed, and a propensity for voluntary, individual accessorizing with horse blinders from its denizens.

It's not just the economy, stupid...it's the stupids who drive the economy, stupid. And it's the stupids who continue to passively endure economic abuse from the fatcats' ruinous, bankrupt tactics, stupids. What this country needs about now is a mass of pissed-off, unemployed Joe the Plumbers taking to the streets, torches (and PVC pipes) in hand. The Revolution WILL be televised. Chris Matthews is waiting.

Lot by lot I realize what ill fits capitalism and deregulation are for me. Over the last few months I've heard from my colleagues "if you don't like it, LEAVE" so often, that I've started packing boxer shorts into suitcases (well, that settles THAT debate for those of you wondering about my choice of underhosen). Not really, I have family ties which bind me here, but one can take metaphorical liberties when one deems himself some sort of op-ed wanna-be columnist. Or is just fed up with abuses.

In any case, to my incredulity, these Citiboobs---as the New York Post, which broke the jet news calls them---didn't learn jack from the auto bigwigs who got in trouble last month for flying their private jets to Washington to ask for bailouts, or the A.I.G. moguls who got dragged before Congress for spending their bailout on California spa treatments. Don't get me wrong, I highly respect and value mammary glands in general, and would never demean this most important piece of female biology, but these particular boobs didn’t get the message---the squash-headed, moronic dummies. Gagootz!

Writing in The New York Times this morning, Maureen Dowd puts it quite nicely:
"The former masters of the universe don’t seem to fully comprehend that their universe has crumbled and, thanks to them, so has ours. Real people are losing real jobs at Caterpillar, Home Depot and Sprint Nextel; these and other companies announced on Monday that they would cut more than 75,000 jobs in the U.S. and around the world, as consumer confidence and home prices swan-dived."

Virtually pricked in the ribs by an appalled Senator Carl Levin, Tim Geithner — even as he was being confirmed as Treasury secretary — instructed Treasury officials to call the Citiboobs and tell them the new jet would not fly.

“They woke up pretty quickly,” says a Treasury official, adding that they protested for a bit. “Six months ago, they would have kept the plane and flown it to Washington.”

These pests will never learn on their own, though. Consensus around Washington is that Geithner will have to flex his muscles and rein in the vermin using his new leashes.

“I have no confidence that they intend or desire to change,” Senator Carl Levin told The New York Times. “These bankers got away with murder, and it’s obscene that close to nothing is being asked of financial institutions. I get incensed at the thought that a bank that’s getting billions of dollars in taxpayer money is out there buying fancy new airplanes.”

Revolution, anyone?