Interesting article in Salon, March Madness on Capitol Hill, by Mike Madden, tells how the chair of a House Committee investigating AIG, Paul Kanjorski, angrily scolded the “Pink Ladies” who were holding signs in protest. This is the first I’ve noticed the Pink Ladies, though they’ve been around now since the start of the Iraq War. The “Pink Ladies,” from a group called CODEPINK, are in the news because of their protest at the AIG hearing.
These signs angered Congress
The Madden article implies that, for members of Congress, their outrage at the AIG bonuses is all a show, but that outrage at the “Pink Ladies” was real. The subtitle of the article is, “Now that everyone knows about AIG’s bonuses, Congress decides to get angry about them.”
Madden says the genuine anger was reserved for the protesters because they dared to “disrupt their (Congress) choreographed show of outrage with some off-message signs in the background.”
Madden writes, “By around lunchtime Wednesday afternoon, the chairman of the House subcommittee on capital markets, Rep. Paul Kanjorski, a Democrat from just outside Wilkes-Barre, Pa., had heard enough. His committee had spent nearly four hours looking into the havoc that AIG’s derivatives traders had wreaked on the global economy — and into the company’s payment of $165 million to those very same derivatives traders after the government had dumped billions of tax dollars into saving the firm. But after sitting quietly through most of the testimony, Kanjorski finally lowered his brow, raised his voice, and tore into the people who had upset him the most throughout the hearing.”
The people who had upset Kanjorski the most, according to Madden, wasn’t the people from AIG, it was the ladies dressed in pink. What an accusation: The Pink Ladies upset Kanjorski more than the 165 million bonus money paid to the people who caused the financial mess at AIG.
I found the web-site, “CODEPINK.” It explains, “While Bush’s color-coded alerts are based on fear and are used to justify violence, the CODEPINK alert is a feisty call for women and men to ‘wage peace.’”
CODEPINK evidently has chapters around the nation. The site says, “CODEPINK is a women-initiated grassroots peace and social justice movement working to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, stop new wars, and redirect our resources into healthcare, education, green jobs and other life-affirming activities.”
A You-tube record (below) shows Kanjorski’s exasperation with the “Pink Ladies.” One You-tube viewer responded, “It’s about time someone in Congress did something to restore dignity to the proceedings. Code Pink members are idiots!” Another responder defended the ladies and mocked Kanjorski exasperated command to the group, “You’ve tried my patience.” The comment says, “Well Congressman, I think YOU have tried the TAXPAYERS patience.”
The author got it right. Congress knew about these bonuses. The Secretary of the Treasury approved the provision in the bailout that allowed them. Now, all of a sudden everyone is professing outrage. What a phony bunch of people we have in Washington.