From AIG bonus checks may be taxed at up to 100%, says Sen. Chuck Schumer:

"They should voluntarily return them. If they don't, we plan to tax virtually all of it," New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared on the Senate floor.

"To those of you getting these bonuses: be forewarned, you will not be getting to keep them."

Cuomo, in a letter to Congress, said he had learned that 11 AIG executives who got retention bonuses of over $1 million no longer even work there.

In total, Cuomo said, the top 10 bonus recipients at AIG shared a combined $22 million, 73 got more than $1 million and the most handsomely paid got a whopping $6.4 million.

Schumer called it "Alice in Wonderland business practices" to give bonuses to executives at a firm that lost nearly $100 billion last year and had to be rescued with $170 billion in taxpayer money.

"It boggles the mind," he said.

Isn't Schumer adorable when he gets all outraged?

So answer me this, because I feel like am missing something here : Where was he when TARP was being written up? What exactly did he do to ensure that the books of these financial institutions saw the day light and came under the scrutiny needed to prevent this kind of chicanery?

And for that matter, where was he along with the whole NY State Congressional delegation all these years? What were they doing to make sure Wall Street was accountable for their gains in good times and in bad?

This is not a rhetorical question. You guys know more about the trappings of the NY politicosphere way more than I do. Was he really a crusader?

Am being cynical about this whole outrage thing because Chuck Schumer was also gnashing his teeth and rending his shirt when Stuyvesant-Town, the place where I live, was put in the block for more than $5billion. For years I was told this place was going to be sold. I was also told the place was already sold when it was announced that MetLife was unloading it.

The lead led to nowhere for nobody wanted to come forward with proof that anything was going on. Then, in less than 60 days the fate of more than 2,500 households was decided in what seemed like a blink of an eye. Sure, our City Council representative, Dan Garodnick, was able to put together a coalition of organizations to try to come up with the money. Yet the problem was that the rumors had always led to the feet of Tishman-Speyers, the company that won the bid.

Tishman is the company that manages New York University's real estate assets. Sometime at the beginning of the Aughts, NYU started renting out apartments by the boatloads in Stuyvesant-Town. It was at the same time that MetLife decided to stop giving rent stabilization leases on newly vacated apartments. In a matter of a year this place became another NYU campus with apartments stashing 5-6 people at a time. With apartments that were being illegally subdivided with cheap dry-walls by MetLife (and then Tishman) themselves. With apartments where the shelf-life of their occupants was less than 6 months.

Did I mention who are Chuck Schumer's top donors?

Top 5 Contributors, 2003-2008
Citigroup Inc $80,800
UBS AG $79,750
Paul, Weiss et al $67,000
Kasowitz, Benson et al $64,250
MetLife Inc $59,000

Top 5 Industries, 2003-2008
Securities & Investment $1,392,539
Lawyers/Law Firms $1,209,968
Real Estate $751,551
Misc Finance $328,548
Commercial Banks $290,500

And now, joy of joys, Tishman's greed is coming back to bite them in the ass big time. They got what they wanted but now they're going bankrupt. Cosmic payback is a bitch.

So riddle me this.

How can I really know that Schumer was not just sincere but advocating for my interests as my alleged representative in the US Senate when MetLife, one of his major funders, had a vested interest in potentially selling the place to it's largest rental client, aka, Tishman Speyers (via NYU)? How can we really know that there was no deal sealed behind closed doors? How can I really, really know if all that political theater he unleashed in front of my apartment more than a year ago was part of his duty to his largest donors?

So please, educamacate me.

Is Chuck Schumer being an effective legislator here or is this is just part of his bargain with Wall Street? Is this outrage authentic or just political theater?