U.S. Plans to Escalate Porn Fight | LA Times

[Ediacara]

Just in time for Valentine's Day.....

February 14, 2004
THE NATION

U.S. Plans to Escalate Porn Fight
Justice Department hire of a veteran prosecutor answers criticism from Christian conservatives who have long sought a crackdown on smut.

By Richard B. Schmitt, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has quietly installed an outspoken anti-pornography advocate in a senior position in its criminal division, as part of an effort to jump-start obscenity prosecutions.

The Bush administration's election-year move follows three years of heat from the Christian right, which believes that Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft, a longtime friend and ally, has fallen down on the job when it comes to fighting smut.

Now, the appointment of a tough new cop on the porn beat and other recent moves by the department to bolster obscenity cases are galvanizing conservatives, while leaving representatives of the adult-entertainment industry to wonder whether they have become a political football.

More at the Los Angeles Times

[DemoTex]

1. Have we nothing better to do?

Are they truly insane?

[underpants]

4. Shrinking government so it can see through your keyhole

Yes we have better and bigger things to worry about.

[PurityOfEssence]

11. So true. Remember Ashcroft in his hearings?

During the confirmation, he said that he'd uphold the laws of the land, regardless how they skewed with his personal beliefs.

At the time, it was astounding how nobody seemed to speak up that that wasn't the role of the AG; that job is about prioritizing enforcement and influencing the direction of the legal changes in a fluid system.

Fourteen months and scads of money this guy spent trying to find hookers in New Orleans; they found what, a dozen? Tommy Chong is in jail for selling bongs, while free-range Kenny-boy roams the land.

Religion is the breeding ground of madness, and it always seems to spawn hatred for other people's joy. What the hell's wrong with a little plooking anyway? This guys's crazier than the proverbial shit-house rat, and it's just amazing.

THIS is what we have to waste our precious resources?

Your post is rightfully the first in the thread; it's the essence of the incredulity that sweeps through so many of us.

Sheesh.

[ret5hd]

2. Judging from past RW moral police "leaders"...

all we have to do is convince larry flint to hire a PI to follow the guy around for a week. Surely he'd get photos of him in every compromising position possible.

[underpants]

3. I thought that the "market" would decide what is best

and since the advent of the VCR (let alone the internet) porn has gone from sneaking in an out of a movie theatre to the bedroom.

I think it is something like a $100 Billion industry. I thought the all mighty dollar would decide what is best, maybe the Christian Conservatives only believe in that to the degree that they feel comfortable being in a particle market.

[Taeger]

14. The Free Market !!!!

Funny how conservatives only believe in the free market when it's convenient for them. ;-)

BTW, Drug dealers are businessman too. Their business is just unsanctioned. Again, the free market is BAD ... errr ... GOOD ... errr. REGULATION errr...... err.......

:nuke:

[thinkingwoman]

20. love your new

underpants.

Boxers are soooooooo much better than tighty whiteys!

Uh, sorry if too personal. ;-)

Carry on.

[barbaraann]

5. If they really wanted to do something about porn,

they could educate people, including students in sex education classes, about the realities of the sex industry and objectification.

[KissMyAsscroft]

6. Their hysteria makes it more taboo and therefore, more exciting...

Unless you arrest everyone in America, there will always be porn...

They should spend on real crime...

[Ysabel]

7. well gee - it's failing to get me any more excited...

and i'm pretty easily excited...!

as for "real crime" - you mean they should arrest themselves...?

yeah - heh...

[mobuto]

8. The greatest piece of pornography ever written

without doubt has to be George Bush's FY 2005 federal budget.

And your tax dollars are paying for it!

[kskiska]

9. There's no way to stamp out porn

It always was, and always will be. Just like homosexuality.
You can see porn in Pompeii, for christ's sake.

[Ediacara]

10. but those damn Romans

It was porn that did them in (500 years later) not those damn Huns LOL.

Kill porn or we'll die just like the Romans! LOL

[modrepub]

12. Funny

I always love hearing the RW hold out the fall of Rome as an example of what happens when morals fail. When the western empire fell it was an official Christian state. Monks in Alexandria lynched pagans and others in the east burned pagan temples. Catholics killed Arians (Christian sect), Donatinists and Catholics in Africa ran separate churches and often came to blows. Ambrose of Milan humbled (excommunicated) the Roman Emperor Theodosius and made him do penance. The catholic church had its own court system that anyone could appeal to. The catholic church was at the pinnacle of power during the last days of the empire so I have no idea where this morality crap comes from.

[pinniped]

13. How many times have we seen this?

"has quietly"

Too many.

[BiggJawn]

15. In defense of Porn.

If it wasn't for porn, I'd be a more angry and bitter man than I already am. That is, if I hadn't slit my wrists years ago.
I don't like bondage porn. I don't get off on people tied up, that's sick, IMO.

I guess the Arschloch crowd wants socially inept geeks to start throwing things at people or something.

In the meanwhile, there's some "person of interst" out there who mailed envelopes of Anthrax to the Senate, Ken Lay has yet to be indicted, and we have an Attorney General who is put at ill-ease by 30' aluminium statues with nekkid titties...

[Zomby Woof]

16. It's Ed Meese all over again

The unintended irony of Meese's crackdown on porn was the government publication listing EVERY porno movie, magazine, or video in existence at the time. Porn stores used it as a catalogue because it was the most comprehensive source around. Ah, Republican repression, here we go again...

[pfitz59]

17. Hypocrites hiring hypocrites!

One man's porn is another man's art! Better a man whack off to an inanimate image than to whack an animated young being to satisfy lust! Teach kids guilt-free masturbation and watch the anger drain away! Watched Congress agonize over Janet's titty while millions go to bed hungry each night! Shame shame shame!

[leesa]

18. What a waste of money and energy. I despise the fakes of the

christian right. They probably thank God nightly because they know their effort to end pornography will fail. They probably buy most of it.

[jsw_81]

19. I'll never understand puritanical prudes like Ashcroft

They freak out over a nipple while an unelected "president" destroys the economy, pollutes the environment, starts wars etc.