Licentiousness Explained and Displayed

"disregarding accepted rules and standards" - New World Dictionary, 2nd. Ed.

American politics today displays the meaning of this term openly to all who would care to look! Congressmen and Senators regularly take 2 or 3 procedural votes on any controversial measure and vote several ways, so when they are called to account for their votes, they can say, "Oh, I voted for - or against - this measure!" depending on which ever way the wind happens to be shifting. But, their final vote may have been different. Americans are upset now about the bonuses given to AIG executives and Senator Chris Dodd is on the 'hot seat' for his duplicity in it, but the entire Congress and White House are responsible for the financial mess we find ourselves in. Democrats received hundreds of thousands in kickbacks and bonuses from companies like AIG, Freddy Mack, Fanny May, etc. In fact, some of those executives not only got millions in bonuses but also were appointed to serve in the current administration! Some Republicans as well prospered from the largess of the bailout. If the American public really cares, they would vote these scoundrels out of office and demand they all pay back their bonuses and campaign gifts. The GOP sent out the following email -

 On Monday, news broke about AIG paying out upwards of $165 million in bonuses to its executives after receiving $173.3 billion in taxpayer subsidized aid.

Upon further investigation, it came to my attention that over the course of the last few years, Senator Chris Dodd has received a bonus of his own... a total of $175,000 in contributions from AIG executives... $103,000 of which went to his futile Presidential campaign.

I was the first to call on Chris Dodd to return those contributions or give them to a Connecticut charity!

Under the "leadership" of Sen. Dodd, the Senate Banking committee placed an amendment in the "stimulus" bill that allowed for banks bailed out with taxpayer money - including A.I.G. - to hand out huge bonuses without any government oversight or regulation. (He later claimed it was because of administration pressure.)

Where was Senator Dodd? What was he thinking?

Wednesday, Sen. Dodd denied having any involvement in passing that amendment until we turned up the heat here in Connecticut and in Washington and demanded an explanation.

Connecticut voters see which side Sen. Dodd has been on - and it is the side that pays.

We are working hard to hold Chris Dodd accountable, but we need your help to continue!
 

Of course, this GOP email wanted money as well. Let's see if I have this right - I pay money to hire senators, congressmen, and a president to take care of legislation that is supposed to help me and the country, but instead they take more of my money to support those who haven't worked for it. Then they take even more of my money to bail out people who failed in their attempts to make money but who give them large kick-back donations (that's what I call campaign donations). And now, I'm supposed to give more money to get the problem taken care of ?

I have a novel idea - why not vote in people of proven good character, who don't lie, cheat, and steal their way into office by race-bating or class-warfare or making dead people vote, etc. Of course, that presupposes an electorate who can read and think - neither of which are easy to find these days! After all, if the voters knew the meaning of the word 'licentious', they wouldn't have empowered the present government.