The Simpsons in its earliest years offered the type of TV we associate with All in the Family – social commentary in a comedic wrapper. The “Deep Space Homer” episode originally airing 2/24/94 didn’t fail to disappoint.

The premise – humorous in and of itself – was a despondent NASA desperately searching for higher ratings of its launches and missions. The solution?…send an average man into space so every Joe Six Pack will (hopefully) be interested enough to tune in. Enter Homer Simpson the astronaut!

On the eve of the launch Bart sits at the dinner table with his parents providing the viewers with the following jab at the waning respect children seem to have for their parents:

BART: Wow, my father an astronaut. I feel so full of…what’s the opposite of shame?

MARGE: Pride?

BART: No, not that far from shame.

HOMER: Less shame?

BART: Yeah…

This humorous trip down memory lane has us thinking there just might be a bit of Bart Simpson in Obama’s White House. President Obama promised during his election campaign that he and the United States would conduct affairs in open, public forums.

Why is openness so important? Consider the recent housing mess:

On May 13th Reuters reported that “Crisis cut U.S. Minority Access to Mortgage Loans.” “America’s financial crisis disproportionately cut access to conventional mortgage loans in minority communities” according to a study quoted by Reuters and The New York Times. “Prior to the housing bubble, banks did little lending in low-income neighborhoods but stepped up lending during the real estate boom with encouragement from the U.S. government and Congress.”

What the article conveniently failed to mention is that banks did plenty of lending without property appraisals and without verifying borrowers’ income, employment and assets yet maintained the ability to sell these funny loans to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. In this sense the government was an enabler of the housing mess and the proximate cause of our nation’s recent financial crisis.

There’s plenty of blame to go around for the housing mess. We’re not pointing fingers. What we find discouraging, however, is that this shroud of secrecy by operating in the darkness of incomplete information is repeating itself with Obama’s handling of the Gulf oil spill.

How so? Consider that Obama has placed in charge Ken Feinberg to administer the fund established by BP to compensate victims. How’s he handling the reimbursement to those who operate fishing boats and oil service repair businesses? He doesn’t seem to care who has documentation or paid taxes. All comers are welcome.

In “The Fisherman and the Tax Man” published on May 30th The Los Angeles Times wrote “BP’s request for tax records to receive reimbursement from their fund poses a problem for some residents of fishing communities in Southeastern Louisiana…who haven’t kept records or reported their cash income.”

Obama signed legislation allowing these criminals who haven’t paid taxes on their earnings for years to apply for compensation from the BP fund with no adverse consequences for their years of unreported income. Feinberg commenting on how administration of the program would work said, “We won’t be requiring much documentation. I will continue BP’s policy of minimal corroboration.”

Where is the transparency we were promised? What Obama has done is flip-flopped on his campaign promise solely to score points by demonizing an already unpopular BP. He’s tossed aside transparency and embraced the “We don’t need no stinkin’ documentation!” policies that promoted fraud and abuse in the housing market. Are we to believe there will be any less with the BP fund?

And so as Bart Simpson made clear there are poignant ways to encapsulate the action:

AMERICAN PUBLIC: Wow, no more secrecy. Thanks for being so…what’s the opposite of opaque?

OBAMA: Transparent?

AMERICAN PUBLIC: No, not that far from opaque.

FEINBERG: Less opaque?

AMERICAN PUBLIC: Yeah…