Akkam’s Razor

As we await both Santa Claus and the pending Bush pardons (just like Poppy, on Christmas Eve?), it’s helpful to consider the following regarding the Federal Office of Thrift Supervision and its contribution to the current economic crisis from Barry Ritholtz:

Recall that when James Gilleran took over the Office of Thrift Supervision, he took a chainsaw to a stack of regulations to symbolize how his agency was going to “cut red tape” for thrifts (a.k.a. S&Ls), which were heavily involved in mortgage lending. The ideologue in him declared: “Our goal is to allow thrifts to operate with a wide breadth of freedom from regulatory intrusion,” Gilleran said in a 2004 speech.

Nice work.

This wasn’t mere malfeasance by Gilleran — as we have been repeatedly noting, it was nonfeasance — the intentional failure to perform a required legal duty or obligation.

As for the FBI, the division in charge of enforcement, after sounding the warning bell, subsequently made a “strategic alliance” in 2007 with the Mortgage Bankers Association (MBA) the trade association for (then) major industry players like IndyMac and Countrywide Financial. Imagine if the FBI division in charge of organized crime set up a joint venture with the Cosa Nostra. That’s what this was the equivalent of at the FBI.

It all comes back to the radical deregulatory philosophy we discussed Sunday:  Appoint cabinet level people who share that same belief system, who think government can never work — and voila! –  this is what you get.

There’s a somewhat annoying site based on the premise of ‘Forgiving Bush’.  I think it’s fair to forgive him, but we should learn from the error of his ways (although he will not).   When I look at all the missteps of the Bush years (9/11, ‘greeted as liberators’, Katrina, etc.), the problems weren’t due to malice, creative destruction, ratf*cking, an overestimation of their own abilities, or a preference for loyalty over competence.   They honestly expected the world to conform to their world views.

I think it is also fair to recall this statement given by an anonymous Bush aide to author Ron Suskind about the Reality-Based Community:

The aide said that guys like me were ”in what we call the reality-based community,” which he defined as people who ”believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality.” I nodded and murmured something about enlightenment principles and empiricism. He cut me off. ”That’s not the way the world really works anymore,” he continued. ”We’re an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that’s how things will sort out. We’re history’s actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do.”

He, and the ideologues around him, have bad heads.  It’s not that their decisions or flawed or that they had bad intentions.  Their entire world view is based on a rejection of actual reality and a substitution of one viewed with their broken lenses, like looking at the world with someone else’s prescription rose colored glasses.

Would you believe me if I told  you that white supremacists and American Nazi’s were supporting Obama [Esquire via Political Irony]?

Rocky Suhayda, chairman of the American Nazi Party:

White people are faced with either a negro or a total nutter who happens to have a pale face. Personally I’d prefer the negro. National Socialists are not mindless haters. Here, I see a white man, who is almost dead, who declares he wants to fight endless wars around the globe to make the world safe for Judeo-capitalist exploitation, who supports the invasion of America by illegals–basically a continuation of the last eight years of Emperor Bush. Then, we have a black man, who loves his own kind, belongs to a Black-Nationalist religion, is married to a black women–when usually negroes who have ‘made it’ immediately land a white spouse as a kind of prize — that’s the kind of negro that I can respect.

First off, the die has been cast. No matter how much money we’ve thrown at the situation, it will simply have the effect of taking your shoes off at the airport - creating an illusion of safety. Post-bailout, we will have $1.3T reasons to feel that all will be well, and that the disaster has passed. But those will be illusions.

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Enough already. 

The headline on the Delaware County Times and weaselly caption is bad enough, but it's my observation when voting that have inspired my frustration.  Philadelphia voted for change.  But by all apearances, Delco, Montco, Chester County, and Bucks County all voted for the status quo.  I'm left with no possible alternative hypothesis other than the Democrats don't care about Delaware County (or suburban Philadelphia) politics.

The Delaware County Times delivers no value as far as local political reporting, save the occasional 1-inch column.  The "Sound-Off" section sounds like a cross between internet forum and local bar circa 1:55 AM.  And you can always count on a trio of Gil Spencer's Opinion Local Columns heaping negative criticism on Democratic challengers or lauding compliments of GOP incumbents landing in your mailbox.  The Inquirer and the local TV-news networks only cover Delco for crime and scandal.  We are horribly under-served.  Perhaps we like it that way.

As election day drew nearer, my wife, as she does, collected the various print endorsements.  I'd say we received GOP mailings on a 5:1 ratio as compared to the Democrats for the County level council seats.  I saw no TV ads, no radio ads, and no door-to-door visits by any of the candidates.  No robo-calls, no visits from local leaders, nothing. I understand that there's no money for these things, and that the GOP is entrenched and backed by an all-powerful machine.

The DelcoDems are horribly positioned.  The only reason Joe Sestak was able to win his House Seat in Congress was due to his backing by the party establishment, with little discernable thanks to be given to the county leadership.  Except for the occasional rant against George Bush and the Iraq War (a brave stance, now that overwhelming majorities oppose both) you hear nothing from them.

No attempts to build an infrastructure. NO GOTV (get-out-the-vote) effort.  No effective information gatherer or disseminating device.  No go-to-person for sound-bites or commentary. Nothing.  

(And yes, I do understand that they get no national or state level [party] financial support.  That just means they need to be more creative). 

Visiting my fire house, I see Township Manager Jack Ryan handing out ballots.  No Democrats to be seen.  I go in, sign the book, and vote.  I know nothing about any of the Judicial Races (thanks liberal media and DelcoDems), and I take special note the DA Michael Green, Delaware County Township Commissioner Jack Hennessey, and the entire Southeast Delaware County School District;s up-for-election seats were run entirely unopposed. 

You mean there were no suitable candidates amongst the county's residents?  Or that we didn't look?

One party rule has been devastating both locally in the City of Philadelphia and nationally in Washington, DC.  Elected officials, when no longer threatened with re-election, become increasingly complacent, indifferent to constituent concerns, beholden to campaign contribution and single-issue ideologies, and not-infrequently corrupted, either morally, ethically, or criminally.

So why is it?  Why isn't there any serious attempt to fix things, to bring some sort of balance?  Daddy Democrat pointed out that the GOP ran (since what, 1980) county council voted unanimously 2012 times since 2003.  That's a fascinating number, isn't it.  Were they all in agreement about what was best for the county and their constituents?  I wonder.

So I'm left with a singular conclusion to all of this.  Up until recently, the Republicans had a significant advantage to the Democrats in voter-registrations. Despite this, on the National and State level, those voters consistently have delivered Democratic candidates while maintaining the status quo locally.  I suspect that the national and state Democratic Parties realize this, and do not wish to spend additional money to benefit local politics. 

To be fair, we're not exactly clamoring for change, are we?  If the citizenry won't do it themselves, perhaps they don't want it.  And that can't possibly be true, can it? Think we can do better?  Email me.

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