This is slightly less asshat-ish than the big bonuses they gave out - sponsorship, even lavishly, is at least advertising.

Besides, I'm sure Charlie Rangel was there to make sure it was spent appropriately, i.e., on him.

Eddie Adams from Torrance: dletter: 2. Outrageous perks (having company meetings at 'executive retreats' spending $25,000 an employee for spa treatments and such, instead of just meeting at a Hilton ballroom). hookers and blow.

I'm sad they ruined the party before I could get into that lifestyle.

I expect Charlie Rangel to hold hearings on this once he gets back from his Citibank Caribbean Junket and Treasury Secretary Geithner figures out how to use TurboTax.

If you think you know how to run a Savings and Loan better, then do it.

/Micromanaging idiots.

OldScotch: This is slightly less asshat-ish than the big bonuses they gave out

I don't think they even gave out bonuses. The dude who ran ML gave them out right before BofA acquired them, and they threw his ass overboard.

Earmark some of it for tar and feathers, next time.

Happy to see that these bank's are learning what happens when you suck on the government teat. Hopefully becuase of things like this the shareholders will throw the executives out on their collective a$$es and put in someone who knows how to run a bank.

Treygreen13: This is an outrage. You may only use government money to purchase pens, ink, and paper.

OUTRAGE!

You forgot red Swingline Staplers.

Sounds like advertising to me.

UM-This was not advertising. This was a party. A party on the tax payers dollar. THIS IS WHY you DO NOT bail out banks. Let them fail. There are other banks we can put our money in to.

twfeline: If you think you know how to run a Savings and Loan better, then do it.

Ok, when do I start?

FTA: The bank said it was legally required to fulfill its contract to be an NFL sponsor and that its NFL product sales had already increased since the Experience began Jan. 24.

So would there be the same outrage if BoA had bailed on their legal requirements and had to pay millions in fees/penalties to the NFL with no benefit to the company?

I personally want to kick the CEOs of every major corporation in the balls until they are infertile. I need to pick up where Darwin left off.

There was no stipulation in the bailout that required the money to be used as a bailout. It wasn't a mistake, either.

Any money spent in the United States helps the economy. Presumably they had to hire people to plan and run the carnival or whatever this is. If they took the money and blew it on hookers in Rio that would be another story.

Reminds me of the tired old tale that all that's needed to stimulate the economy is cut rich peoples taxes so they can invest and spend more. Even the federal government spends most of the money in the US. Give Paris Hilton a tax cut and it's just as likely to be spent in Europe.

Look, if Congress didn't want business as usual, it shouldn't have funded it.

And besides, this *was* business as usual. How else do you want them to run their business? Poorly? They need revenue to survive and this is how they drum up revenue. The bailout money wasn't to replace this revenue, it was to remove the crippling debt that threatened to suck all of their normal revenue into a bottomless pit that would collapse their entire structure. The bailout money went into one slot for their bad credit/loan situation that was meant just to keep them alive. The $10 million comes from their normal operating budget that would have existed even if they didn't get the bailout. It's like biatching that someone used their feather duster to brush some cobwebs when they've got a perfectly good Oreck vacuum cleaner sitting in the closet.

On top of that, look at the powers of 10 that they're just randomly throwing around in this complaint! $45 billion dollars was to bail them out, and you're going to cry over a $10 million dollar ad gimmick at the Super Bowl? That's like biatching that a welfare recipient went out and ate a twinkie one day. We're talking about 1/4500th of their bailout money even if you ignore the legitimacy of their usage of the money AND the whole budgetary designation thing.

I'm tired of fark not greenlightiing my submitted links...
Here's one I thought was great.
Home Designed Indycar
The Homer

As someone who was just "downsized" today I'm getting a kick out of the replies...

No really, I was fired today and am cleaning out my desk.

Cup_O_Jo: UM-This was not advertising. This was a party. A party on the tax payers dollar.

TFA said it was the "NFL Experience," which is more like a theme park environment than anything else. Sponsoring it is most definitely advertising. We're not exactly talking about the Playboy party here.

http://www.nfl.com/superbowl/43/events/nfl-experience

The National Football League will produce the 18th annual NFL EXPERIENCE PRESENTED BY BANK OF AMERICA at Raymond James Stadium. The NFL Experience is the most exciting continuous event surrounding Super Bowl XLIII -- pro football's interactive fan festival offering participatory games, displays, entertainment attractions, kids' football clinics, free autograph sessions and the largest football card show ever.

The NFL Experience presented by Bank of America ticket includes all games and attractions. $18.50 for adults and $12.50 for children under 12.

Bank of America are the biggest buttholes out there. Of all the banks I would like to see go away, BofA tops my list. Crappy service, outrageous fees, monopolistic tactics. Not only that, they mock our flag with their stupid logo.

Like most teenagers starting out, I banked with them for a few years, until I became wise to their nickel-and-diming tactics directed especially at customers with low savings/checking balances - in other words, those who can least afford the fees. I then switched to Wells Fargo and got much better service without a lot of the fees. Now... credit union all the way, baby.

Bushie should've just let that ship sink alongside his own. And Barack should torpedo it to make sure it sinks!

beantowndog: They'll waste it much slower than the government ever could.

That is true, but it's already been taken away from us, it doesn't much matter now how quickly they burn it.

I'm from MD so I can say this: Cummings can bite me. He voted in favor of the bail-outs (and didn't respond to very nice polite citizens such as Ms. Knerd who wrote snail letters and e-mail opposing said bail-out) when it was well-known (at least to those of use who didn't have our heads in the sand) that at least some of the bail-out money was going to be used on stuff like meetings, sponsorships, and bonuses.

Plus this sponsorship was probably decided upon a year ago. Get over it. People pre-pay for stuff like sponsorships. They're not going to renege on the contract.

Gah. I'm so freakin' tired of hearing about how the bailout money's being wasted - how did senators/representatives and journalists not see this coming. Or are they just trolling for news?

dkimball: I'm tired of fark not greenlightiing my submitted links...
Here's one I thought was great.
Home Designed Indycar
The Homer

Your mother is calling for you to come out of the basement, and stop playing D&D. Toss in a few other clichés about you being a loser, I think you've earned them.

KnittingKnerd: Gah. I'm so freakin' tired of hearing about how the bailout money's being wasted - how did senators/representatives and journalists not see this coming. Or are they just trolling for news?

They're posturing to make themselves look better. They knew what they were doing.

destrip: Like most teenagers starting out, I banked with them for a few years, until I became wise to their nickel-and-diming tactics directed especially at customers with low savings/checking balances - in other words, those who can least afford the fees. I then switched to Wells Fargo and got much better service without a lot of the fees. Now... credit union all the way, baby.

It took you a few years? Not very quick, are you?

But keep re-electing the exact same crooks who make these dirty deals.

/Ameritards

This crap is an illustration of why the bailout was a bad idea to begin with. If you want to run the business, just buy the damned thing. Don't "loan" it money and then forever after biatch about the decisions it makes. No competent executive is going to want to work for an organization where every pressure group with a congressman's ear is continually hectoring it to buy green, sell off the corporate airplane, unionize, don't sponsor the Boy Scouts, save the two-headed children, yada yada yada, and demanding it all in the name of, "You took our money!"

How dare they spend 1/4500th of their bailout package on advertising.

ju66l3r: $45 billion dollars was to bail them out, and you're going to cry over a $10 million dollar ad gimmick at the Super Bowl? That's like biatching that a welfare recipient went out and ate a twinkie one day. We're talking about 1/4500th of their bailout money even if you ignore the legitimacy of their usage of the money AND the whole budgetary designation thing.

Percentages? But... but... there are so many zeros! Surely $10,000,000 is too much!

BoA is insolvent. Its not really even a bank anymore. Its just a collection of digits and asshats with digits up their arses spending money until someone comes over to turn out the lights and tell them all to go home because the party is over.

People are only worked up because essentially, it's their money being spent.

Or rather the money they'd have, but don't.

Heads on pikes lining the molten ruins of what was once Wall Street. Nothing less is acceptable.

KnittingKnerd: I'm from MD so I can say this: Cummings can bite me. He voted in favor of the bail-outs (and didn't respond to very nice polite citizens such as Ms. Knerd who wrote snail letters and e-mail opposing said bail-out) when it was well-known (at least to those of use who didn't have our heads in the sand) that at least some of the bail-out money was going to be used on stuff like meetings, sponsorships, and bonuses.

Plus this sponsorship was probably decided upon a year ago. Get over it. People pre-pay for stuff like sponsorships. They're not going to renege on the contract.

Gah. I'm so freakin' tired of hearing about how the bailout money's being wasted - how did senators/representatives and journalists not see this coming. Or are they just trolling for news?


If you accept government assistance you should be prepared to have your spending habbits scrutined. This goes for private citizens, or large corporations.

I would work three jobs before I went on welfare for this very reason.

bacccc: But keep re-electing the exact same crooks who make these dirty deals.

Yeah.. calling people Ameritards from the comfort of the Internet is just what we need to kickstart the revolution.

PenguinTheRed: How dare they spend 1/4500th of their bailout package on advertising.

What's the point of advertising? They aren't going to give you a loan anyway.

WaltzingMathilda: I already tried to ask ... no one seems to enjoy owning up to logic.

logic? Fark? hmm? a strange and foreign concept this is...