Goose...meet the Gander...

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday appointed a compensation czar who will have broad discretion to set the pay for 175 top executives at seven of the nation’s largest companies, which received hundreds of billions of dollars in federal assistance to survive.

The mandate given to the new compensation official, Kenneth R. Feinberg, a well-known Washington lawyer, reflects the federal government’s increasingly intrusive role in the corporate affairs of deeply troubled companies. From his nondescript office in Room 1310 of the Treasury building, Mr. Feinberg will set the salaries and bonuses of some of the top corporate executives in America, including Kenneth Lewis, the chief executive of Bank of America; Vikram Pandit, the head of Citigroup, and Fritz Henderson, the chief executive of General Motors.

Please...please...please...someone with a signficant amount of their own expendable income laying around start a movement that places referendum votes in all 50 states that ties performance of elected politicians to their salaries. If there is a deficit, they receive no pay (and perhaps penalties in the form of taxes that will encourage constituents to fire their voluminous asses). If they balance the budget, we will provide performance driven salaries reflective of the result. The Fed has set the precedent. Let's apply it properly.

Home Improvements in addition to the mortgage...

Caulking and sealing. Insulation in the walls and the attic. An upgraded furnace. Perhaps even a new refrigerator.

Energy-saving home improvements - that's how the federal stimulus program will first be felt by tens of thousands of low-income American families.

About 30,000 homes in Pennsylvania and 13,000 in New Jersey will benefit from $5 billion that Congress has allotted nationally for weatherization work.

Pennsylvania will get $253 million and New Jersey will get $119 million under a supercharged expansion of a 33-year-old program that was first meant to help the nation cope with the Arab oil embargo and high energy prices of the 1970s.

And you just thought that you were paying for their mortgage. What a hard nosed callous person you are. You're giving them a new fridge and fixing up the residence, too.

A whole slew of monkeys with loaded pistols...

WASHINGTON — The U.S. House approved a bill Thursday that would impose a new tax on the $165 million paid to bailed-out insurance giant AIG as Senate Republicans stepped up criticism of the Obama administration's handling of bonuses.

The House measure would apply a 90% tax on bonuses given to employees who earn more than $250,000 at any firm that received more than $5 billion in bailout money.

Window dressing...to appear concerned. The fact remains that the Equal Protection Clause will shoot down this piece of unconstitutional garbage faster than a shotgun levied on a balsa wood glider.

The third test for Equal Protection is the only shot Congress has of keeping this bill intact...and its not a good one in my opinion.

Rational-basis test: the law is constitutional so long as it is "reasonably related" to a "legitimate" government interest.

I'm curious how the Courts will accept the argument that the "legitimate" government interest is congressional incompetence and trying not to look bad. Or perhaps it could be considered quid pro quo (in Chris Dodd's case).

Still, how exactly does an ex post facto law supersede a legitimate contractual obligation reviewed and approved by the sitting committee member of congress and the Treasury Secretary's office? This is further complicated in that CEO Liddy was installed by the keepers who are now second-guessing his decision making.

Jackasses one and all...