AIG executives went on luxurious retreat one week after receiving $85 billion bailout.

I say it’s time for that revolution Jefferson kept talking about.

Today, the House Oversight Committee discovered that, just one week after the federal government bailed out insurance giant AIG, company executives went on a retreat to a luxury resort. The executives spent nearly $500,000 on manicures, facials, pedicures, and massages, among other things. During a hearing today, Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD) asked, “Have you heard of anything more outrageous?”:

CUMMINGS: Let me describe for some of you the charges that the shareholders, taxpayers, had to pay. AIG spent $200,000 dollars for hotel rooms. Almost $150,000 for catered banquets. AIG spent $23,000 at the hotel spa and another $1,400 at the salon. They were getting manicures, facials, pedicures and massages while American people were footing the bill. And they spent another $10,000 dollars for I don’t know what this is, leisure dining. Bars?

I want heads on pikes over the East River.

I was going to post this photo at CP two days ago when I took it, but the site was hosed. What you see is the side of the Waldorf Astoria — Chinese president Hu Jintao got out of his limo, shook a bunch of carefully-vetted Chinese hands, and then bounded across Park Avenue to shake some more hands. Everyone had a little Chinese flag.

Nojo, 7 a.m.: “Kindie Porn already established that John McCain was willing to lose his integrity to win an election.”

TPM, 3:04 p.m.: “An Obama spokesperson just blasted out a statement comparing McCain’s current campaign to the infamously despicable 2000 campaign run against him in South Carolina — true fighting words — and adding that McCain ‘would rather lose his integrity than lose an election.'”

(Update: And in the Low-Hanging Fruit aisle, you can see variations on the theme starting to show up in late July. But hey, it’s all about timing.)