It just wouldn't be St. Patrick's Day without the Mobile, Alabama leprechaun. If you haven't experienced this yet, and even if you have, put down all beverages before viewing.

Holy flying pasture fritters! I don't think I've ever stood quite as alone as I did yesterday on this AIG bonuses thing. I don't think I had one call yesterday from one single person who agreed with me on this issue. That's fine. I believe I'm right .. and not being on the side of the majority won't bother me.

Here's the point I was trying to make yesterday. The American people have $165 billion invested in AIG. We don't have the money, so we are going to have to borrow it. From who? Well, perhaps from China! Maybe China will buy the treasury notes issued to back up this newly printed currency. So ... who do you want to pay this money back? How about your children and grandchildren? That would be just swell, wouldn't it? AIG fails, the $165 billion is shot to hell, and there's nobody around to pay it back except for future generations of Americans through increased taxes.

There is another option. Why don't we let AIG pay it back? Why don't we stand back and let AIG take reasonable steps to turn its fortunes around and once again become a profitable financial powerhouse? Certainly you see no problem with that! The question, of course, is just how do they do that? They do it with management expertise, that's how. They do it by retaining the best minds they can and putting those minds to work on solving AIG's problems. There is no shortage of competition for the type of business minds that can change the fortunes of AIG. There are other companies out there who could use that help .. and who aren't under Barney Frank's thumb. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see the efficacy in allowing the best financial minds out there to gravitate toward companies that haven't received TARP funds while the companies that have borrowed so heavily from the taxpayers make do with second-rate executive talent. So how do the companies with the bailout funds keep the executive talent that will likely lead them to profitability? Well, they pay them! That's how. They live up to their contractual obligations. If they don't pay them, someone else will.

The issue here is not that AIG paid bonuses ... bonuses that amounted to less than 1/10th of one percent of the bailout money it received. The issue should be to whom those bonuses were paid. If they were paid to the perps who put AIG into this mess - and that's supposing the mess was caused by AIG execs and not by the federal government essentially forcing AIG investors and subsidiaries into making and buying hideously bad mortgages - then we have a problem. If the bonuses were paid to people who are working hard to solve AIG's problems and achieving some success, then no problem.

Let's take this angle. When was the last time you looked at the retirement plans for members of Congress? Some of these congressmen created the Community Reinvestment Act monster that coerced banks and lending institutions into making many of these subprime mortgages. These congressmen urged Fannie and Freddie to reduce their credit guidelines so that these quasi-government agencies to buy most of those bad loans. These congressmen and senators are going to retire with fat retirement funds that are completely safe while tens of millions in the private sector will retire with retirement funds decimated by this economic meltdown. Much of the problem was caused by the Barney Franks in Washington .. why aren't they paying the price like the rest of us?

New York Attorney General Cuomo (No relation to Perry) wants a list of people who got those AIG bonuses. What? Now we have crimes being committed here? The attorney general is going to investigate people who receive payments pursuant to a contract? Cuomo - clearly playing to the political message here -- says that "we owe it to the taxpayers to take every possible action to stop unwarranted bonus payments to those who caused the AIG meltdown in the first place." Cuomo is going to investigate who received the bonuses and who developed the bonus plans.

What in the hell is going on around here? Are we going to adopt a standard where contracts are only enforceable if they're popular with political class and the public? If that contract is unpopular what are we going to do? Sic the attorney general after the parties if they live up to its terms? Do you know where this is going to go? Well, what if you were some sort of a financial genius, and AIG or some other institution receiving bailout funds wanted to hire you to help turn them around. You're going to think: "Hmmm ... sounds like a nice opportunity. I can help those people and make some pretty good change in the process .. but do I want to be the subject of a criminal investigation by the attorney general if I accept a bonus? Do I want the president calling me greedy and telling the congress to pull out all of the stops to take the money I have earned back? I think not. I'm going to stay right where I am."

A lot of what we're seeing here is the anti-capitalist, pro-government left seeing an opportunity to demonize the private sector. The same politicians who are so adept at getting the public whipped into a frenzy over these bonuses seem somehow unable to gin up any degree of outrage over taxpayer money being spent on lobster sex and tattoo removal. At least there's a chance AIG is going to pay the money back. Let's see if some gang-banger gone straight offers up the money spent to remove his tats.

I, for one, am a lot more curious as to what Barney Frank's lover was up to at Fannie Mae while he was busy protecting that institution from President George Bush's attempts at reform, than I am in sending the New York Attorney general on a witch hunt for executives who received bonus payments pursuant to a contract.

Yesterday, President Obama and tax cheat Tim Geithner outlined their plan for small businesses. But before doing that, Obama wanted to make sure he had his say about these AIG bonuses. And not surprisingly, he believes that they are outrageous. Not only that, but he wants tax cheat Tim Geithner to "pursue every single legal avenue" to block the payments.

Obama, of course, just had to use this occasion to play into the wealth envy. He used one of my favorite words ... "greed." He said, "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed ... This isn't just a matter of dollars and cents. It's about our fundamental values ... All across the country, there are people who work hard and meet their responsibilities every day, without the benefit of government bailouts or multi-million dollar bonuses. And all they ask is that everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street to Washington, play by the same rules." What rules would that be, PrezBO? Abiding by your contractual obligations? That rule?

Here we have Obama wants to worry about fundamental values. Where were those values when he nominated a tax cheat to be the Secretary of the Treasury and the head of the IRS? Willfully cheating on your taxes is OK. Getting a bonus for the work you've done pursuant to a contract is not.

The White House says that the Treasury Department will use a planned $30 billion infusion into AIG as leverage in order to compel the company to repay the bonuses of financial-products group employees. The infusion won't be final until the company and the Treasury figure out some sort of repayment options. OK .. here's an idea. The bonuses, as I've said, amounted to 1/10th of the amount of the bailout funds. So take this new $30 billion and reduce it by 1/10th of one percent. That would be $27 million Then everything will be square.

Well .. at least she's not asking for bailout money ... yet. She wants the Justice Department to give San Francisco area newspapers the leeway to merge or consolidate to save themselves. Fair enough. The question here is why in the world would the government stand in the way of these newspapers keeping themselves afloat?

I hope you're distressed over the current condition of the nation's newspapers. They're in trouble, and our society really can't afford for them to fail. If the government, through its antitrust rules and regs, is standing in the way of newspaper survival .. then fix that. I'm in talk radio .. and I recognize that there no way in the world for any talk radio program to cover the important issues of our time in sufficient depth. The time just isn't there. I rely on newspapers every single day. Before I go on the air I've gone through The Wall Street Journal, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, The Washington Times and Post, Investor's Business Daily, The San Francisco Chronicle and the Naples Daily News.

I guess this is turning into a plea. Please, folks. Start reading your newspapers. Information is power, and without the information you can only get from a good newspaper you are next to powerless. Sure, I know ... most of these newspapers have a very liberal slant. Recognize that and deal with it ... but read. An uninformed populace cannot save our Republic. If you don't read newspapers ... you are uninformed.

... and I love it! This one is a bit lengthy, but I think you will enjoy.

Name: Christian
Subject: Nationalized health care
You should be ashamed of you're self!! You single minded selfish bigots. All you care about is Money and power! you're un accurate and one sided analysis of the national health care system in Great Britain is indicative of you scared selfish old men. Thanks god young America has woken up and are pushing you pathetic excuses for American's off you're soap boxes!

Of course the national health care systems in Europe are not perfect, as soon as one negative fact surfaces your type always make a big deal, but what about the bad things that happen with you're perfect private system, the kids that die because the Insurance companies will not pay for what they call experimental techniques or the 10's of millions that cant afford insurance, but have lived the American dream, bought a house or a car only to have it taken away to pay for a medical bill. Or just get substandard health care.

Oh but taxes will go up.... I pay over $700 a month for my wife and one child who are all healthy, are you going to tell the American people that our taxes wiull go up more than that, i earn $80'000 a year in my own small business. What happens if god forbid one of my family get sick, i loose my business and my insuranbce... I am doomed and so is my family. You think about the 100'00's of thousandfs that that has happened to as you sit in you're chair and preach you're Bull to us!!

Do you think the rest of the industrilsed world want Americans to get nationalized health care... Hell no the burden to US businesses for health care is what is keeping there companies from being competitive.

Tell us why US heath care is ranked by the WHO 37 just under Costa Rica .......You carry on lying and brain washing the American people. You pathetic excuse for a Human!!!

.... Before we get into the reading assignments.

To all you obese women out there wearing sleeveless shirts and waddling into the 7-11 in the early morning hours to get a breakfast burrito the size of a roll of paper towels and a few donuts ... those tattoos on your ankles and calves really DO make you look slimmer. No! I swear! They do! And those cigarettes hanging out of your mouths add an aura of sensuality that is hard to describe. Sorry if I've ever suggested otherwise. I just don't know what I could have been thinking.

Obama's popularity is eroding, according to the latest poll from the Pew Research Center. It has dropped below 60%. You don't think that people are figuring out that this guy is not all that they thought he was going to be, do you?

This one has the turbos all hot and bothered .. Obama is in favor of federal health benefits for same-sex partners.

South Carolina will not be able to use the stimulus money to pay down debt, so Mark Sanford is going to call Obama's bluff and reject part of the stimulus money.

Is the White House prepared for the eventual bailout backlash?

The chairman of Wells Fargo is upset with the government for retroactively adding curbs to TARP funds and says that the administration's plan for stress-testing banks is "asinine."

Here's a pleasant surprise .. eight Democrats do not want for Obama's cap and trade bill to be included in the annual budget.

Did you know that state governments that contract jobs paid for with stimulus money will be required to pay workers on construction projects union wages rather than market rates?

The Project for Excellence in Journalism has just released its annual report on the state of the news media.

Talk about the law of unintended consequences. Here in GA, you can become a sex offender if you rob a store where an employee is a minor.

According to the latest Rasmussen poll, only 9% non-workers actually want to join a union.

California is having major budget problems. But guess what? The number of government employees in California is growing. Does anyone see something wrong with this picture?

Connecticut has discovered 111 obsolete laws that are still on the books.

You know how much I love the idea of being politically correct .. the EU has decided to ban the use of "Miss" and "Mrs" because they are sexist.

A mayor in Maryland believes that the greatest danger to her city is bloggers.

And now from Germany ... Obama fried chicken fingers.

Townhall.com columnist John Andrews asks "When Will Atlas Shrug." Wow, he must've really hit a nerve with this liberal bedwetter.

Oh no! It looks like the Socialists don't want Barack Obama either!