Behind Closed Doors

That was part of the title of a TV miniseries back in the 1970s on the Nixon-Ford White House: Washington - Behind Closed Doors.  "The story of a power-hungry U.S. President, and the men he surrounds himself with in order to keep his hold on power. Based on John Ehrlichman's book about the Nixon Administration."

Brothers and sisters, Tricky Dick was a rank amateur:

Under a little-noticed provision of the recently passed financial-reform legislation, the Securities and Exchange Commission no longer has to comply with virtually all requests for information releases from the public, including those filed under the Freedom of Information Act.

The law, signed last week by President Obama, exempts the SEC from disclosing records or information derived from “surveillance, risk assessments, or other regulatory and oversight activities.” Given that the SEC is a regulatory body, the provision covers almost every action by the agency, lawyers say. Congress and federal agencies can request information, but the public cannot.

That argument comes despite the President saying that one of the cornerstones of the sweeping new legislation was more transparent financial markets. Indeed, in touting the new law, Obama specifically said it would “increase transparency in financial dealings.”

The SEC cited the new law Tuesday in a FOIA action brought by FOX Business Network. Steven Mintz, founding partner of law firm Mintz & Gold LLC in New York, lamented what he described as “the backroom deal that was cut between Congress and the SEC to keep the SEC’s failures secret. The only losers here are the American public.”

Oh, it's in keeping with the Soviet socialist worldview, alright.  Markets and the private sector are inherently evil, so we've got to keep them tied to pole in front of megawatt klieg lights making sure they don't (and can't) do ANYTHING, not even function as private entities (which is, you know, evil).  But government is inherently virtuous and thus beyond the need for accountability, in fact cannot function if subjected to accountability, and besides, We, The People aren't worthy of licking their boots much less looking over THEIR shoulders to keep THEM in line.

EVERYTHING these animals do is "behind closed doors".  The very reasonable and logical question is what Red Barry and Countrywide and Lollipop want the SEC to be doing "behind closed doors" that they don't want US to see.  Via Ensign Ed, here's a smattering of things that were uncovered by FOIA requests of the SEC over the past couple of years:

• March 2009 – Fox used FOIA to discover that the SEC had investigated Madoff and R. Allen Stanford, but failed to follow through on prosecution in time to save investors.
• 2009 – Fox again used FOIA to get records showing that the Fed knew AIG execs would get their bonuses under the bailout legislation proposed by Congress.
• SEC whistleblower Gary Aguirre forced the SEC to release documents through FOIA requests that showed he was correct in accusing the agency of interfering in an investigation of Pequot Asset Management — and allowed him to get a settlement for wrongful termination.

What's the common thread here?  Government corruption.  Who controls the government right now?  Democrats.  Who rammed down FinReg and then did boorish, dishonest, self-congratulatory victory dances about it?  Democrats.  Who wrote FinReg?  Countrywide Dodd and Lollipop Frank.  Who stoutly obstructed any and all Republican attempts to lance the Democrat-generated subprime boil before it could burst, devastating the economy and getting unjustly blamed on the GOP?  Countrywide Dodd and Lollipop Frank.

And you wonder why I loathe these "men" with a singular passion and can't wait for November and the oversight hearings next year, that most certainly will NOT take place "behind closed doors"?

UPDATE: Michelle Bachmann elaborates.