Josh Marshall’s analysis here gets at why the situation with AIG bonuses is appalling:
We’re collectively taking our country’s future in our hands, spending vast sums of money to keep these companies from suffering the consequences of their own folly and (in many cases) criminality. And in return we’re receiving cavalier dictates about pay-outs and bonuses from executives who by any reasonable measure work for us — dictates we promptly accede to. There’s a beggars can’t be choosers problem there. And the disconnect is so mighty that it fuels the impression that the whole enterprise is not what it seems, not what we’ve been told, that in addition to picking up the tab we’re being played for fools.
Obviously, AIG and its ilk can’t be shamed, and aren’t at all worried about public perception or pressure. You know who should be more worried than they seem to be? The Obama Administration.  Their willingness to eat the shit sandwiches AIG keeps feeding them is nauseating.