An Anti-Capitalism Agency for Anti-Capitalist Protestors

An Anti-Capitalism Agency for Anti-Capitalist Protestors
By Derek Hunter
11/13/2011

Elizabeth Warren, anti-capitalism crusader and U.S. Senate candidate from Massachusetts, claimed she is the author of the intellectual foundation for OWS. As the arrests, violence and bodies continue to pile up, she’s walked that back some, but she did say it and did mean it, and, in many ways, it is true.

So it does make sense the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, an agency made by and in the image of Warren, would be a kindred spirit to the mutants of the Occupy Wall Street movement.

Like Warren, the White House has gone largely silent on the “Occupiers.” The daily news of overdoses, sexual assaults and rape charges is not something any White House wants to be associated with (with the exception of the Clinton White House, of course). But when it comes to replacing Warren at the CFPB, the Obama administration remains concerned about what the encamped body-lice-infested minority thinks.

According to the Huffington Post the White House, in its push to get Richard Corday confirmed by the Senate to head the CFPB, has as much as admitted it.

On Thursday, top members of the Obama administration's communications and economic team held a conference call designed to put pressure on Senate Republicans to confirm Richard Cordray to head the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. ...

At one point during the call, the question was raised: To what extent has the Occupy Wall Street movement affected the politics of Cordray's stalled nomination?...

"The sentiments that lots of people who are out there as part of 'Occupy Wall Street' have -- not just on Wall Street but on Main Streets across the country -- those sentiments are shared by lots of Americans," said one of the spokespeople. "Having Richard Cordray in place obviously would help them."

And therein lies the rub. We now have an agency, set up by an anti-capitalist crusader, that has unprecedented power over a major segment of our economy. And the Obama administration wants to put a man in charge of that agency who would “help” the agenda of the anti-capitalist protestors.

Given how far out of the mainstream the demands of the “Occupiers” are – when we can make sense of them at all – one might dismiss such craziness because Americans, certainly, would not stand for it.

One would be wrong because, in the case of the CFPB, the people – and their representatives in Congress – don’t get a say.

The CFPB is set up to be insulated from oversight. It sets its own budget, makes its own rules, sets its own pay, and can pass and enforce regulations unilaterally. So much for that “representative republic” of ours.

It’s a safe bet the regulations the CFPB establishes will not be good for business or liberty. According to the Wall Street Journal’s review of the 820 pages produced at a recent hearing, some of what the agency advocates already has been deemed unconstitutional by the Supreme Court.

But then again, the entire structure of the bureau may be unconstitutional, so what's a few more regulations. It’s crazy-talk to expect liberals to be burdened by things such as our founding document, especially when it limits their power to meddle in our lives.

Warren may have left the agency her warped world view helped spawn, but the monster she created lives on. And here’s another safe bet: If the views of the “movement” she helped create are being considered when it comes to choosing her successor, if Richard Cordray truly was selected to keep the unshowered masses happy, that will not bode well for the rest of us.

Two final random thoughts for you.

First, in case you live in Florida and were wondering if it was OK to keep a dead cougar in your freezer, wonder no more...at least about that. Please continue to wonder what happened to you in your life that brought you to that point in the first place.

Finally, I’m from Detroit, a place where the night before Halloween is un-ironically called “Devil’s Night,” when vacant houses used to burn in record numbers. Now there aren’t enough people (or houses) left in the city to set anything on fire, so we’re forced to look elsewhere for Halloween-related stupidity. Enter Pittsburgh. When you hear the term “drive by” you usually think of movie images of shootings. Not this year. Now we’ve got the “drive-by pumpkin attack.” It’s not a laughing matter (OK, it is kind of funny). The victim was hurt pretty badly. On the plus side, there was pie!

That’s it for now. Go about your week.

PS Take a minute to read this piece by my friend Kurt Schlichter on Veterans Day. He’s a Vet, a Colonel in the Reserves and may well be the only conservative trial lawyer in the country. Oh, and one hell of a good guy.