The emotional crap about these bonuses is staggering. They were either lawful (these bonuses were in the contracts before AIG took the bailout/our money) in which case we should grumble and shut up, or they were unlawful (bailout plan agreed to by AIG's management included some means of altering the contracts they already had with their employees) in which case law enforcement should have their day.

The bonuses are such a small percentage of the bailouts, we are really just moaning about typical wall street ethics and gov mismanagement. If I were President Saladbar I would just put this up to the execs:

1) receive your bonus and go through the most thorough investigation/audit possible to ensure that nothing illegal was involved in this crash and have your names all published fully so we can follow your asses for the rest of your life.

2) give up the bonus and forgo the audit and move forward with righting the ship and concentrate on the future. We won't publish names.