That’s right. Mere weeks after the government used taxpayer money to keep AIG solvent, its executives saw fit to proceed with a corporate retreat. Whether they had decided to spend the weekend team-building at a KOA campground outside of Denver or indulging in hot stone massages shouldn’t be the point -- no good-time trip should have been scheduled in light of the circumstances -- but it kind of is. The pampering just ramps up the outrage factor.

If socialism in this country is really to be applied on a case-by-case basis, shouldn’t it at least come with strings? Remember the French Revolution? This is the kind of thing that could move even generally complacent Americans to take to the streets. It’s this kind of disgusting misappropriation of the people’s money that starts revolts. 

I’m not smart enough to know whether the government sold us a false bill of goods with regards to the so-called critical action it took with AIG, but the fate of Washington Mutual does have me wondering.

WaMu, before it was allowed to fail on September 25th, was the largest savings-and-loan in the nation. Sort of like AIG, the country's biggest insurer. 

Now, maybe the treasury secretary knew how the chips would fall (he did graduate, presumably with honors, from Goldman Sachs’ Capitol Hill finishing school). Maybe he knew JPMorgan (JPM) would swoop in and absorb WaMu at a fire-sale price, guaranteeing its deposits and reassuring clients that it was business as usual. Maybe he knew it would all end neat and tidy and just so.

But maybe he didn’t.

Personally, I don’t care where the retained WaMu staff hold their annual Christmas party. I’m not paying for it.

Click through to see AIG's slap-in-the-face hotel bill, as seen on TheSmokingGun.com.