Musings 22--The self-righteous hypocrites

There is an organization called the Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW). On March 10, 2005 they published a document called "Addicted To Porn--Members of Congress Accept Contributions from Porn Purveyors."

In this report, it is pointed out that 15 representatives and senators that tout decency and morality as part of their political beliefs take money from Political Action Committees (PAC) that make between 250-300 million dollars a year off the porn industry. Well those dirty rats, you say, how could they do that and preach to the rest of us. Well, it is easy if you don't know where your money is coming from. I suspect that most of these guys and gals don't, and I think that speaks volumes about their intelligence.

Holiday Inns, Marriott International, Comcast Corporation, Time Warner Cable, Cox Communications, Charter Communications, Adelphia Communications, Cablevision Systems Corporation, Echostar and, yes Virginia...even General Motors all make substantial monies from pornography. When you check into any of the above hotels, you can pay for your porno fix and watch right in your room. Estimates from the hotel industry is that $190 million dollars is made on people watching x-rated movies. One study says that one of every two people who check into a hotel that panders to x-rated movies watches at least one per visit. They say that most hotels make more off of the porno than they make from the mini-bars.

General Motors recently sold Direct TV and was hooked up to many hotels and motels. Direct TV allows selections of adult movies. And you thought they only sold automobiles. Education is a good thing.

The members of the house of representatives who profess higher moral standards but take money from the above companies are: Joe Barton (R-TX), Chris Cannon (R-UT), Barbara Cubin (R-WY), Tom DeLay (R-TX), Bob Goodlatte (R-VA), Michael Oxley (R-OH), Charles Pickering (R-MS), Joseph Pitts, (R-PA), Bart Stupak (D-MI), Fred Upton (R-MI) and Heather Wilson (R-NM). The senators are: Christopher Bond (R-MO), Sam Brownback (R-KS), Joe Lieberman (D-CT) and John McCain (R-AZ). Most of these are republicans. You must understand that there are plenty of others who receive monies from these PACs but they do not spout the high moral doctrine that these do.

Most of these elected representatives probably never gave it a thought when receiving money from hotels and cable networks. Now that they are aware, will they give the money back or will they stop being the moral conscience of America. They need to do one or the other.

If Hugh Heffner, founder of Playboy Magazine, attempted to give a donation to any of these solid pillars of righteousness, they would have turned him down flat. If smutlord Larry Flint donated money to a PAC...they couldn't run from it fast enough.

I also find it unique that the Marriott Hotels and several gambling concerns in Las Vegas are owned by the Mormons. Walk the straight and narrow, we don't watch that filth and we don't gamble, but we'll make millions off you guys that do. It's just business.

If I was a congressman or senator and I had made a name for myself as a moral crusader, I'd declare that I would not accept money from anyone who profited from porn. Sometimes you have to think things through. I think the above politicians want to talk the talk but they don't want to walk the walk. Of course, they may have been ignorant of the facts. Thus, they're too dumb to be representatives and senators, anyway.

I'll end with the closing paragraph of the CREW report.

"There are members of both the House and Senate who see no conflict in accepting significant political campaign contributions from corporations and executives who have profited by selling pornography. Self-righteous proclamations of morality notwithstanding, these Members are apparently blind to the vice of greed."

Save us from the self-righteous hypocrites. Clean your own house before you try to clean mine.