How do they justify this outrage?

Yes, the AIG bonuses are obnoxious – “retention payments” AIG prefers to call them, when the only appropriate means of retention for many AIG employees would be a pair of handcuffs – but I find myself unable to muster that much outrage. In the larger scheme of things, it’s the need to prop up this criminally-run company with $170 billion of taxpayer money that’s the real scandal. Compared to that, $165 million in bonuses is kind of a sideshow, the insult to injury ratio here being 1:1,000.

Barack Obama, however, can muster, or can at least fake, some populist outrage, asking, “I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”

That’s a good question. Let’s help them out with some suggestions. CONTEST: how can they justify this outrage?