Forget Terrorism, Let's Fight Pornography!

Attorney General Gonzalez' top priority in office isn't fighting terrorism, or drugs, or poverty, violent crime, or anything else on my list of The Top 20 Things America Could Do Without. Nope, his goal is to eradicate pornography. Not underage child porn which is awful, but the multi-billion dollar consenting adult pornography business. From a Washington Post article:

Early last month, the bureau's Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director." That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

Mischievous commentary began propagating around the water coolers at 601 Fourth St. NW and its satellites, where the FBI's second-largest field office concentrates on national security, high-technology crimes and public corruption.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against "manufacturers and purveyors" of pornography -- not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.

That's always useful. Take agents working to fix the real horrors in this country and get them to do your political bidding. The Post article continued with this gem:

Christian conservatives, long skeptical of Gonzales, greeted the pornography initiative with what the Family Research Council called "a growing sense of confidence in our new attorney general."

Yes! Now we get right down to it! Gonzales needed to pick-up some points with the religious right, makes perfect sense. Next time I'm smuggling drugs in from Cuba, I'll make sure to leave the Hardcore Hunnies Vol. IV at home, because we don't want THAT trash coming over to this country, hell no.

Comments

[Bryan]

This makes me want to build a time machine to quickly go to 2008. I weep for our society these days, and this says it perfectly. Although the time machine idea would only work granted that Bush doesn't ruin everything within the next 2 years.

[Jeff Smith]

...Bush doesn't ruin everything within the next 2 years.

Exactly. You could end up in 2008, only to find out that everything has been destroyed...

[Britt]

At my high school reunion three years ago, one of my classmates was in the FBI doing work on child porn. He told me that some agents were fired because they became a little too involved in "monitoring" it.

[meme]

it's a goddamn crying shame. i don't know what i would do without my porn...i'm freaking out just thinking about it

[Elyse]

Couldn't have said it better myself. Between that and arresting people for peaceful assembly (I mean, not having a permit for a loudspeaker) we're doing bloody well here at making sure the real dangers are being taken care of and the constitution is being upheld.

[Marco]

Bush keeps on showing the world he knows perfectly what the 'priorities' are. I just really hope for the sake of all those USA citizens who dislike everything he does just as much as I do that there will still be something left of the USA when this monkeybrain leaves the Whitehouse.

[anon]

The interesting thing to me is that, from legitimate polls, it would appear that the Bush agenda is not America's agenda. So, the Dems will need to sell an alternate agenda (starting with the by-elections next year) that speaks to the voters. If Rove and Co. don't fool 'em again.

Of course as W said himself, "Fool me once and shame on you, fool me again . . ." Well, they did fool us twice into thinking that they actually won the national election.

[Daniel]

What the frick is with all the hate comments against Bush? I would like to see you try and run a country that has gone and messed itself up like we have. It's not Bush's falut that the planes crashed into the Trade Towers, nor is it his fault that Katrina struck. Bush cannot prevent things like this, no one can. All he can do is try to fix them.

Pornography is a giant issue in this country and does need to be stoped, and if all of you think otherwise, then I question whether or not YOU are actually the reason that this country is all messed up. Crime, porn, piracy. All these run basically in the same line, and if one can be stopped, then the others will be stoped easier as well.

Quit blaming all your problems on Bush, he's not your mommy, and you're not his kid. Grow up and smell the roses. America is one of the best countries in the world, and for you to blame ONE person for your small problems, or at least what you "think" are problems, then you must be out of your mind.

Start using your brain and realize what the government is for. It's not here to serve us. If you don't like the way things are going, then get the heck out of this country, or at least try and make an encouraging impact. Sorry boys, porn is not encouraging.

Stop throwing all your crap everywhere. From now on clean up your own messes!

[Elyse]

The point is though, Daniel, that Bush/Gonzales are putting eradicating pornography above finding and putting terrorists to judgment. Bush has made "The War on Terror" his largest platform and it has suddenly been turned around and made a lower priority than pornography.

Explain that, please.

[alex]

@daniel: If the government is not there to serve the people, what is it there for?

[cameron aka desk003]

Daniel, you are an idiot, plain and simple. I'm sorry for being so blunt, but it had to be said.

You see, Daniel, It actually is somewhat Bush's fault the planes hit the towers. Why? Well, because it happened on his watch, and COULD HAVE BEEN PREVENTED. You see, if he had appointed more people to monitor the radios and such of al queda, they would have known. Then he went to war for OIL, not for WMD's, or for terriorists. He said it was for WMD's and terrorists, to get it passed. You see, we never had any real proof saying Saddam had WMD's, and the checks of his nuclear facilities were happening. Also the checks and cameras in North Korea were there. When Bubblehead Bush declared war on Iraq, guess what happened? Yep, North Korea took the tv cameras and checks down.

Also, you didn't talk about all the tax cuts, and the deficit. You see, you cannot run a war that's costing around a billion dollars a day and have all these tax cuts at the same time, especially if you are also waging a war on terrorism.

Did you know we had Bin Laden trapped once? Yep. You see, we could have him right now. However, Bush decided not to send our highly trained troops to nab him. He decided to send warlords. Wanna know why they didn't catch him? BECAUSE THEY'RE WARLORDS! They like war. Bin Laden likes war. They're basically friends.

Also, you touched light on the Katrina disaster. It's true, he could have not prevented it. However, with all the tax cuts, and budget cuts, there was no federal funding for levee upgrading. They knew what could happen.

Did you see when Bush said, and I quote, "I don't think anyone predicted what happened in New Orleans"?

Hehe. See, dumbass, he is. Mutiple scientists said it could happen, and the officials KNEW that if anything higher than a Cat 3 storm came they were all toast.

I think I've left more than my $.02. Plus, I'm tired of ranting.

[cameron aka desk003]

Oh yeah, I forgot pornography.

Pornography... *looks at /porn directory*... Hmm. I don't see anything wrong here. They're all consenting adults. I'm a consenting adult.

Really, it comes down to this. They can't get rid of porno, because we have the right to free speech. That allows us to post stuff like this.

Now I agree that there needs to be some more restrictions and such to make sure it's easy to block from minors, and from people that don't want to see it. But to get rid if it completely? Not gonna happen.

[fishmouth]

What the should do in EEUU not America.., (America is a continent) is to stop having everyone their own fireguns, that is insane and just tells what a civilization is....

[Matt]

Cameron, I don't believe that you are an idiot, but perhaps you are just ignorant of some facts.

We cannot place all the blame on Bush for what happened on September 11th. We fail to forget that Bush hadn't be in office for that long, and the preparations that took place by the terrorists happened during Clinton's administration.

When Osama Bin-Laden was kicked out of Saudi Arabia during Clinton's term, their government offered to deliver Osama to us. However, Clinton did not see this as imporant, and thus Osama was set free to go to Afghanistan.

It is not Bush's fault that Osama was running free, but rather Clinton's fault. His administration could not care less about preventing terrorism. His own national security advisor said the problem of terrorists was like the "wack-a-mole" game, where when one pops up, you just get rid of them until the next time they show up. This is shown by the bombing of the U.S.S. Cole, which Clinton did nothing about.

You cannot blame Bush for things that were left undone before his term. Perhaps if preventing terrorism was a high priority for Clinton, none of this would have happened. He was more concerned with subsidizing the income of those who are lazy and do not want to work.

Perhaps Bush did have an opportunity to catch Osama, and if he messed up, then shame on him and his administration. But we can by no means ignore past facts based on our political alignment.

[Elyse]

Actually, Clinton tried to get it cleared to get Osama, however, the Senate found it as a useless venture and the media painted it as an attempt to move attention from the lewinski scandal to something overseas and therefore nothing was done.

[gas head]

So will he be putting Ashcroft's draperies over naked statues back up?

[Todd]

Hello! Porn hurts us. It ruins families. If families don't work society goes down. If you think porn is harmless think again. Look at the research. It is addictive it ruins lives. Who cares about saving our society from terroists if there is no real society to save? Think about it. Stand up for something be a real man.

[kristina]

OMG... They're going to get rid of porn... that means no more rape, and a lower crime rate... OMG... we're all gonna die because there are no more naked chicks... lets all kill ourselves... You mean men will be forced to have real relationships??? and face the reality that they aren't the most perfect beings on earth and that their women will let them know it??? and they won't be able to make themselves falsely feel better about themselves by looking at girls they could never have anyway??? what is the world coming to??? DID YOU PEOPLE EVER THINK THAT MAYBE FOREIGN COUNTRIES ATTACK US BECAUSE OUR MORALS DON'T MATCH THEIRS... LIKE MUSLIMS HAVE VERY STRICT RULES AGAINST PORNOGRAPHY... AND MAYBE THEY "THINK" THEIR GOD IS TELLING THEM TO KILL US BECAUSE OF THE FILTH WE PUT OUT ONTO THE STREET???? I'M NOT CONDONING TERRORISM, JUST LOOKING AT THE OTHER SIDE.... THAT AND THEY'RE JEALOUS OF OUR FREEDOMS... SOCIETY IS SO MESSED UP MEN THINK THEY CAN'T LIVE WITHOUT PORN.. I MEAN COME ON.... THERE WAS A TIME WITHOUT PORN... AND MEN DIDN'T DIE... ITS AMAZING... WOW... YOU CAN LIVE WITHOUT PORN!!!!!!!

[Danny C]

Top comment Todd couldn't agree more, except men are the most perfect being on earth when compared to women.

[Danny C]

That last part is aimed towards Kristina the serb

[lucinda]

kristina, todd, et al: I was feeling pretty down tonight because every relationship with men in my life is corroded by porn. I'm so alone, and I appreciated what you said. I also see how legislation can't really fix that, because people need to have their choice. But I do believe it is THE worst thing in the world, because it alienates us from each other as humans needing core relationships. It's a clever weapon created by some enemy somewhere. So I agree, I would put it above the war on terrorism because LOOKY THERE it's already ON our turf, in so many hearts and lives! Yet we can't legislate it away, that's not freedom. We've got to find some other way. What do you think?

[lucinda]

kristina, todd, et al: I was feeling pretty down tonight because every relationship with men in my life is corroded by porn. I'm so alone, and I appreciated what you said. I also see how legislation can't really fix that, because people need to have their choice. But I do believe it is THE worst thing in the world, because it alienates us from each other as humans needing core relationships. It's a clever weapon created by some enemy somewhere. So I agree, I would put it above the war on terrorism because LOOKY THERE it's already ON our turf, in so many hearts and lives! Yet we can't legislate it away, that's not freedom. We've got to find some other way. What do you think?