Gonzales: I'll Prosecute Obscenity Cases

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050228/D88HO1KO1.html

Feb 28, 3:36 PM (ET)
By MARK SHERMAN

WASHINGTON (AP) - Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said Monday he would move aggressively to prosecute obscenity cases, and he laid out a broader agenda much like that of his predecessor, John Ashcroft.

In his first lengthy address since becoming attorney general in early February, Gonzales said people who distribute obscene materials do not enjoy constitutional guarantees of free speech.

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impressive said:

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050228/D88HO1KO1.html

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I used to rail against Asscroft. Someone, with a lot of foresight, warned me we might get worse. We have. Instead of a loser who never accompished anything, we have a fellow who is sharp as a tack and ruthless. Where asscroft promised to prosecute, he lost. I don't think Alberto will.

I hope Laurel & Manu have an offshore contingency plan.

Doesn't the government have something more important to worry about like say preventing terrorism or real crimes like murders? Or hey what about corporate crime that causes millions of people to lose billions of dollars.

impressive said:

I hope Laurel & Manu have an offshore contingency plan.

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Laurel, Manu: Come to England. It's got a wonderful view of America disappearing up its own arse.

The Earl

Of all the crimes human beings have legislated out of nothing, blasphemy if the most amazing. With obscenity and indecent exposure fighting it out for second and third place. - Robert A. Heinlein

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Sigh. I forgot, quotes don't count for message length.

This one kind of scares me too.

- Ending Senate blocking of judicial nominees, a "broken process that must be fixed" before there is a vacancy on the Supreme Court.

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So judges are now going to be appointed by the King instead of vetted by the people?

It's been tried before. Generally wasn't successful in my opinion.

Colleen Thomas said:

I used to rail against Asscroft. Someone, with a lot of foresight, warned me we might get worse. We have. Instead of a loser who never accompished anything, we have a fellow who is sharp as a tack and ruthless. Where asscroft promised to prosecute, he lost. I don't think Alberto will.

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I know that i said that to many people.

*sigh*

Who was the last Attorney General that was not controverial?

I'm sorry, B&T, but there is nothing controversial about it. There is already a fair-sized body of case law to the effect that written porn does indeed enjoy first amendment protection. The ass is lying. There is no controversy, just a lie.

Hmmmmm, this should be interesting to watch. How will he stop obscenity, or rather I should ask how will he have the government stop obscenity? Okay so they outlaw it here, make it illegal to own or obtain obscene material. How will that be enforced? What will constitute obscene material? Who will have the fun job of making that determination?

Interested minds want to know. (Maybe I can get a job with the government screening material to determine if it's obscene or not. )

Cat


P.S. What a bloody Wanker. I'll bet he just wants all of the porn for his own collection and is too lazy to find it himself.

I'm hoping that he's just following the tradition politician's journey of finding a solid Aunt Sally to rail against.

Obscene materials are such a traditional Aunt Sally. It's nicely yelling against whatever any individual personally finds abhorrent, whether that be kiddie porn or Lit stories, without actually defining what what constitutes obscene. That way he can define success of whatever terms he like because he never defined the problem in the first place.

That's my hope. Still, very glad I'm English at this point in time. And even more glad that I speak French and German should this kind of attitude spread Eastwards.

The Earl

Gonzales is himself an obscenity case, but given his Hispanic heritage will be immune to a lot of criticism and thus be a tougher nut to crack than Ashcroft, who was merely a stool sample with vocal chords.

I long for the good old days of clay pigeons like Ed Meese, John Mitchell and Earl Butz.

SeaCat said:

Hmmmmm, this should be interesting to watch. How will he stop obscenity, or rather I should ask how will he have the government stop obscenity? Okay so they outlaw it here, make it illegal to own or obtain obscene material. How will that be enforced? What will constitute obscene material? Who will have the fun job of making that determination?

Interested minds want to know. (Maybe I can get a job with the government screening material to determine if it's obscene or not. )

Cat

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Here's how'll go after obscenity:they go after a few high-profile targets, internet sites or publishers etc. on whatever charges they can find - obscenity, child porn, income tax/security violations, interstate commerce, OSHA, dog leash law, technicalities, whatever - and just generally harass them and make their lives miserable and cost them money, maybe levy a few stiff fines. Porn sites become risky investments and banks won't finance them. Funding dries up and people get out of the business.

When's the next time you expect to see a naked tit on network TV? Not any time soon, I'd bet. The FCC has the networks running scared, and they did it without resorting to the courts or defining obscenity or anything like that. They did it by fiat. They did it by scaring the sponsors who won't have anything to do with anything the least bit controversial.

I have personal exprience with an adult publisher who had to fold because they were unable to obtain financing in this "current political climate." No one was threatened, no one was busted or fined. The banks just don't like the way the political wind is blowing and they won't stick their necks out for the right to free expression.

BDSM is wildly popular on the net. I write for an illustrated site in which pretty much anything goes EXCEPT we're not allowed to show depictions of people in bondage engaging in M/F sex, and you can look all around the web and you won't find any pictures like that, at least none from sites based in the USA. Why? Because the site owners are afraid that the government will crack them for depictions of non-consensual sex, which is considered rape, which the government considers obscene and prosecutable. And who wants to put their neck on the block and find out if they're covered under the first amendment or not? Who's got the money to fight the government all the way up to the Supreme Court?

Don't think that the government has to go through legal channels to impose its will. They have plenty of muscle, and if Laurel and Manu suddenly thought they were facing even the possibility of stiff fines for running this site, what do you think they'd do? What would you do?

---dr.M.

dr_mabeuse said:

Don't think that the government has to go through legal channels to impose its will. They have plenty of muscle, and if Laurel and Manu suddenly thought they were facing even the possibility of stiff fines for running this site, what do you think they'd do? What would you do?

---dr.M.

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I'd emigrate. Call me bloody-minded, but I'd not stand for it and would find a way of not abiding by such a stupid law. Bloody-mindedness is actually a trait of the English - tell us that we're not allowed to do something and we'll make damn sure that we do it, whether we wanted to in the first place or not.

The Earl

TheEarl said:

I'd emigrate. Call me bloody-minded, but I'd not stand for it and would find a way of not abiding by such a stupid law. Bloody-mindedness is actually a trait of the English - tell us that we're not allowed to do something and we'll make damn sure that we do it, whether we wanted to in the first place or not.

The Earl

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I've thought about, Earl. Honest to God I have. This isn't my country anymore, and I don't much like it over here these days. It's a fucking embarrassment living in the Conservative Christian Republic of America.

--dr.M.

dr_mabeuse said:

It's a fucking embarrassment living in the Conservative Christian Republic of America.

--dr.M.

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I agree, doc. BTW, I think you've the makings of a kick ass essay for the Freedom of Speech contest in May. (I'm really looking forward to reading those entries.)

dr_mabeuse said:

I've thought about, Earl. Honest to God I have. This isn't my country anymore, and I don't much like it over here these days. It's a fucking embarrassment living in the Conservative Christian Republic of America.

--dr.M.

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Doc: I can't say I blame you. All those people who say that Liberals should stay and fight for their country are very noble, but have the worrying starting point that the country wasn't stolen - over half of the population was stupid enough to actually vote for him.

If Teflon Tony returns for a third season, then I'll hate it with a vengeance, because to my mind he's a complete and utter fuckwit who'll screw the economy by charging into Europe. I am infinitely grateful that our fuckwit has nothing on your fuckwit though.

The Earl

impressive said:

I agree, doc. BTW, I think you've the makings of a kick ass essay for the Freedom of Speech contest in May. (I'm really looking forward to reading those entries.)

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There's a freedom of speech contest?

The Earl

TheEarl said:

There's a freedom of speech contest?

The Earl

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https://forum.literotica.com/showthread.php?p=10867521#post10867521

Free Speech NEW
themes: censorship and free speech (must be submitted in Reviews & Essays category)
starts: May 14
closes: June 6
winners announced: June 12

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Not only will Gonzales prosecute obscenity cases, he will likely deport the convicted to Cuba and torture them. That seems to be his personal thing. The fact that we have an Attorney General who openly supports torture is a scary thing. The New Hitler Youth can't be far behind.

impressive said:

http://apnews.excite.com/article/20050228/D88HO1KO1.html

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Um, who is this asshole, I have apparently been living under a rock, hard . . . don't arrest me!

SeaCat said:

Hmmmmm, this should be interesting to watch. How will he stop obscenity, or rather I should ask how will he have the government stop obscenity? Okay so they outlaw it here, make it illegal to own or obtain obscene material. How will that be enforced? What will constitute obscene material? Who will have the fun job of making that determination?

Interested minds want to know. (Maybe I can get a job with the government screening material to determine if it's obscene or not. )

Cat


P.S. What a bloody Wanker. I'll bet he just wants all of the porn for his own collection and is too lazy to find it himself.

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I suspect, the Government will use fear and threats of prosecution, being able to draw on a pratically inexahustible war chest to keep litigation going thatmost pornographers simply cannot match.

They just passed legislation to up the max fines the FCC can levy to half a million dollars. Thanks Janet. The bill had bipartisan support, with barely anyone voting against it. On the surface, it seems innocent enough, just adding some teeth to existing FCC regulations. If you look a little deeper though, it does nothing to give a definition to the FCC's vague mandate against indecency. Viacom, Mtv, Cbs, etc. can handle the fines with little trouble, but half a million will bankrupt a lot of smaller affiliates. Those stations will become have already become, heavy handed self-cencors. They were even afraid to show Saving Private Ryan, because of the language.

Facing lengthy and potentially finanacially ruinous court battles, many pornographers, authors, artists, filmakers, etc. will simply give up. Given the conservative leaning supreme court and prospects of it becoming even more reationary, the courts may soon cease to be the guardians of the constitution and become just another cog in the neo-con machine as congress has.

I think Alberto is ruthless and quite brilliant. He will use the threat o action, rather than stake his fortunes on winning the court battle. In the end, very few who he will go after will have the means to fight that protracted court battle.

It seems that Senor Gonzales hasn't come across our little haven of smut here and read the wonderful stories.

I'm off to burn my bible, it's filled with innuendo.

TheEarl said:

Doc: I can't say I blame you. All those people who say that Liberals should stay and fight for their country are very noble, but have the worrying starting point that the country wasn't stolen - over half of the population was stupid enough to actually vote for him.

If Teflon Tony returns for a third season, then I'll hate it with a vengeance, because to my mind he's a complete and utter fuckwit who'll screw the economy by charging into Europe. I am infinitely grateful that our fuckwit has nothing on your fuckwit though.

The Earl

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I don't mind it that much when I disagree with politicians. I might think they're devious or misguided, but I understand that people can have differences of opinion on policy and goals and all that, and that's how democracy works: you try it this way, then you try things that way.

But the idea that in the year 2005 we can have people in government telling us that as adults we can't read stories about people fucking is just outrageous. To have the strongest nation on earth run by a man who takes personal orders from an invisible God in the sky is just horrifying to me. I mean, how does that make the US any different from those manical mullahs in the middle east? It's like we're back in the middle ages, with the government taking over the role of the Church in worrying about our immortal souls.

And you're right. It's not like he took over by a coup. He was elected by a majority. He feels he has a mandate for all this crap, and I guess he's right. It's all bullshit. I have no doubt that when they start censoring things, they'll do so while they're waving their "Land of The Free" banners.

You know, you go to Europe and people at least act like adults, not like kids in a Sunday school class, telling on each other and making "shame, shame" with their fingers. In Europe, you want to fuck around, that's your business. You don't get impeached for it. They don't try and push their morals and religion down your throat despite your own beliefs.

What the fuck has happened to this country?

And people buy into it. They buy into this "success through hard work" myth, when the fact is that not one out of a hundred manages to make it, because most of us aren't entrepreneurs and can't even spell the word, so we have to make it through working for someone else. Most of us go to work for a company that gives you two weeks vacation after you've been there a year, expects fifty-hour work weeks, and then lays you off without compunction after 10 or 15 years and takes back your pension. When are people going to wise up?

No, this place is sinking. The yahoos are in charge and America is in serious trouble.