[Ciberblade]

So a look at the FBI site Supports the priority listing in this article.

Now as far as the porn itself is concerned....I could care less. This is not an effort against illegal activities such as child-porn etc... but on currently legal items. It looks as though they are proposing to say what goes to far, and what does not....sounds rather subjective to me....not to mention invasive to those that wish to partake in this sort of entertainment. This dovetails with privacy in your own home, as well as expected privacy on the internet

I think it's funny that so far, only the SanFran people are upset

Washington -- The FBI is joining the Bush administration's War on Porn. And it's looking for a few good agents.

Last month, the bureau's Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a memo from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and, by extension, of "the Director," Robert Mueller.

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.

"I guess this means we've won the war on terror," said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. "We must not need any more resources for espionage."

Among friends and trusted colleagues, an experienced national security analyst said, "it's a running joke for us."

A few of the printable samples:

"Things I Don't Want On My Resume, Volume Four."

"I already gave at home."

"Honestly, most of the guys would have to recuse themselves."

Federal obscenity prosecutions, which have been out of style since Attorney General Edwin Meese in the Reagan administration made pornography a signature issue in the 1980s, do "encounter many legal issues, including First Amendment claims," the FBI headquarters memo noted.

Applicants for the porn squad should therefore have a stomach for the kind of material that tends to be most offensive to local juries. Community standards -- along with a prurient purpose and absence of artistic merit -- define criminal obscenity under current Supreme Court doctrine.

"Based on a review of past successful cases," the memo said, the best odds of conviction come with pornography that "includes bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior." No word on the universe of other kinks that helps make porn a multibillion-dollar industry.

Popular acceptance of hard-core pornography has come a long way, with some of its stars becoming mainstream celebrities and their products -- once confined to seedy shops and theaters -- being "purveyed" by upscale hotels and most home cable and satellite television systems. Explicit sexual entertainment is a profit center for companies, including General Motors Corp. and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (the two major owners of DirecTV), Time Warner Inc. and the Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt hotel chains.

But Gonzales endorses the rationale of predecessor Meese: that adult pornography is a threat to families and children. 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."

Congress began funding the obscenity initiative in fiscal 2005 and specified that the FBI must devote 10 agents to adult pornography. The bureau decided to create a dedicated squad only in the Washington Field Office. "All other field offices may investigate obscenity cases pursuant to this initiative if resources are available," the directive from headquarters said. "Field offices should not, however, divert resources from higher priority matters, such as public corruption."

Public corruption, officially, is fourth on the FBI's priority list, after protecting the United States from terrorist attacks, foreign espionage and cyber-based attacks. Just below those priorities are civil rights, organized crime, white-collar crime and "significant violent crime." The guidance from headquarters does not mention where pornography fits in.

More links:
http://freeinternetpress.com/modules...ticle&sid=4566
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...+National+News

[Wino]

Very timely. Old GWB gets to appoint two Supremes, so the "I know it when I see" is changing in the near future................and it would seem we are going back to the future...............aaahhh, Pleasantville in all it's black and white glory...........I grew up in the '50's, so heading home, again.

Man another War on something............these guys can't win the wars they have going, much less stopping porn................can you say "Tilting at Windmills"? They will have less luck with this than the War on Drugs..........we really need another place to spend money on another silly attempt to bring us all into the fold..............think I'll go choke my chicken.

[slickoe]

I wish once and for all how a kid accidentally seeing people screw would be "harmful".

[bassetman]

Originally Posted by Ciberblade

So a look at the FBI site Supports the priority listing in this article.

Now as far as the porn itself is concerned....I could care less. This is not an effort against illegal activities such as child-porn etc... but on currently legal items. It looks as though they are proposing to say what goes to far, and what does not....sounds rather subjective to me....not to mention invasive to those that wish to partake in this sort of entertainment. This dovetails with privacy in your own home, as well as expected privacy on the internet

I think it's funny that so far, only the SanFran people are upset

More links:
http://freeinternetpress.com/modules...ticle&sid=4566
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/wa...+National+News

Well, as long as we have our priorities straight!

[izme]

I just hope they ddon't catch me with that downloaded pic of ms.piggy in a g-string

[Colossus610]

Originally Posted by izme

I just hope they ddon't catch me with that downloaded pic of ms.piggy in a g-string

Unless you are prohibited by religious belief, who doesn't like bacon?
What you do with it before you eat it in the privacy of your own home is your prerogative I think.

[izme]

Originally Posted by Colossus610

Unless you are prohibited by religious belief, who doesn't like bacon?
What you do with it before you eat it in the privacy of your own home is your prerogative I think.

Well pork is good but not kosher...soooo...you kind of have to think about for awhile and then go Bar B Que a few chops

[iltos]

i dunno know exactly how this fits into this discussion, but i was talking with another soccer dad yesterday evening during our daughters' pracitice...turns out he works for the county of los angeles, investigating white collar crime among county employees

says that one group under him are computer whizzes, able to restore deleted files off hard drives, reproduce images, get credit card numbers, etc....mostly its used for "missing monies" out of departments, to recreate paper trails...but he made mention of using the "same stuff the fbi uses" for tracking porn....their emphasis is on child porn (small part of his job, but they seek criminal prosecution in those cases)...but he also told me that they have canned several county employees after finding out that they spend literally hours of their work day browsing porn sites.....

for him, and the county as a policy, it is not a value judgement on the good/bad of porn per se, just a way to slow the waste of taxpayer money...by paying someone who spends so much of their workday checking out porn sites.

[linskyjack]

This is just more pandering to Mulder's people on the radical right.


Arianna Huffington: Bush's War on Porn: Perverted Priorities Run Amuck

Arianna HuffingtonThu Sep 22, 1:21 AM ET

For those easily offended by sexually explicit language, New York's 92nd Street Y was ground zero on Tuesday night. I was part of a panel put on by the Creative Coalition to discuss The Aristocrats, the First Amendment, and the curious chasm between what Americans find offensive and what they don't.

Also on the panel were Aristocrats director Paul Provenza, the film's masterfully vulgar Bob Saget, South Park co-creator Matt Stone, Motion Picture Association of America head Dan Glickman (gallantly defending the movie rating system), and our moderator, Lawrence O'Donnell.

My contribution to the debate was a head-scratching bewilderment over the fact that more people are upset by blatantly sexual language than by the blatantly fraudulent language we're constantly fed by our leaders. Make a joke about people getting it on and the public finger-waggers come pouring out of the woodwork. But let President Bush say that Brownie is doing "a heck of a job" or Dick Cheney say that the insurgency is in its "last throes" and the morality cops on the right don't raise an eyebrow. Yet that's the real obscenity.

Don't forget, it took less than two weeks after the unveiling of Janet Jackson's right boob at the Super Bowl before the president's congressional cronies were holding hearings on the matter -- but it took 14 months before Bush caved to public pressure and allowed the 9/11 Commission to be formed. Again, you pick the real obscenity.

The latest example of misplaced priorities can be found in the administration's re-energized War on Porn, which includes the formation of an FBI squad exclusively devoted to cracking down on sexually explicit material involving consenting adults.

That's right, with the war on terror in full swing, our Commander-in-Chief is going to have a group of G-men doing nothing but working the porn beat when they could be tracking down -- oh, I don't know -- terrorist sleeper cells. Good to know he's got his eye on the prize.

I don't know about you, but I certainly feel safer knowing the feds are going to be keeping close tabs on Jenna Jameson and Peter North. Let's just hope the next round of al-Qaeda terrorists looking to attack the U.S. all have huge penises, an ample supply of Viagra, and enjoy having sex with silicone-enhanced babes.

This blast from our blue-nosed past has been labeled "one of the top priorities" of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. Along with the FBI's anti-porn squad, the AG has also created an Obscenity Prosecution Task Force in the Justice Department that will take prosecutors currently working on organized crime and racketeering, money laundering and computer crime cases, and have them shift their focus to the War on Porn. Real nice use of manpower, Alberto!

Of course, getting obscenity convictions in today's climate -- where Jenna Jameson's How to Make Love Like a Porn Star is a Times best-seller and GM, Rupert Murdoch, Time Warner, and all the big hotel chains are making a mint off sexually explicit movies -- won't be as easy as it was in Ed Meese's day.

The indecency of spending precious resources on making it harder to watch the Paris Hilton sexcapade has not been lost on federal and local law enforcement officials, who have reacted to the anti-porn push with a mixture of scorn and anger. The WaPo quotes an experienced national security analyst who calls the culture war initiative "a running joke for us," while the Daily Business Review cites high-level Justice Department sources saying that prosecutors are being assigned porn cases over their objections.

On the other hand, the president's born-again base is getting turned on by the initiative. For instance, the Family Research Council said it gave them "a growing sense of confidence in our new attorney general." Hmm, could this be the political equivalent of a Cialis Rx, giving Gonzales the boost he needs to become Bush's next Supreme Court nominee?

For the moral relativists in the Bush administration, the definition of sin seems to depend on whether the sinner can further their political purposes.

So Justin exposing Janet's boob is a sin, but White House staffers exposing Valerie Plame is a win. Profiting from porn is a sin, but Halliburton's wartime profiteering is a win. Two men getting hitched is a sin, but Tom DeLay and Jack Abramoff playing with each other's clubs is a win. And telling students condoms can prevent STDs is a sin, but lying about WMDs is a win.

I'm ready to see The Aristocrats again.

[AGCurry]

Well, two of Bubble-Boy Bush's favorite words are "It's hard"...

Another instance of the neocons distracting the citizenry from what's really important by declaring another unwinnable war.