The new American war

hope5
Originally uploaded by callipygian.

No, not Korea. Or Syria. Or Iran. Or a continuation of the War on Terror. I'm talking about something a little more fundamental and a little more likely to, in the long term, impact all of us.

I'm talking about the administration's new war on the First Ammendment. Check out this post for an overview.

Okay, so you didn't go to Lock & Ki for the overview. Here's the shorts:

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has announced that his office will specifically target "bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" in pursuing new obscenity prosecutions. The Department of Justice began recruiting in late July for a new anti-obscenity squad to pursue obscenity prosecutions, and the FBI announced in September that it was forming an anti-obscenity task force to crack down on pornography.

Any website that has content containing "bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior" should be forewarned that prosecution is possible. Additionally, Federal sentencing guidelines state that any obscenity- related punishment should be "enhanced for sadomasochistic material."

Now, you may say you don't give a damn or this isn't going to impact you or whatever, but...

We're not talking child porn here. We're talking adult sexual expression.

Step back. Do you remember what the First Ammendment says?

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances.

Let me highlight what is applicable here... Congress shall make no law abridging the freedom of speech or of the press.

And, if history serves to teach us anything, it teaches us that once rights begin to be curtailed, it is a long and fast and slippery slope. If this week it's urination, then next week it could be any sexual content.

And, need I remind you, all I -- and all the other bloggers in America -- am doing is speech and press... And these, according to the Constitution, cannot be abridged.

So, think of this: this blog, having posted Callipygian's picture of Hope runs afoul of the Department of Justice's new war. And, likely, I've done run afoul in more than one way (since I don't have a signed affadvit that Hope is 18 and I doubt Callipygian does, either).

What do we want our government to focus on in terms of law enforcement. Check this out about the FBI in southern Miami this past summer:

When FBI supervisors in Miami met with new interim U.S. Attorney Alex Acosta last month, they wondered what the top enforcement priority for Acosta and Attorney General Alberto Gonzales would be.

Would it be terrorism? Organized crime? Narcotics trafficking? Immigration? Or maybe public corruption?

The agents were stunned to learn that a top prosecutorial priority of Acosta and the Department of Justice was none of the above. Instead, Acosta told them, it's obscenity. Not pornography involving children, but pornographic material featuring consenting adults.

Acosta's stated goal of prosecuting distributors of adult porn has angered federal and local law enforcement officials, as well as prosecutors in his own office. They say there are far more important issues in a high-crime area like South Florida, which is an international hub at risk for terrorism, money laundering and other dangerous activities.

His own prosecutors have warned Acosta that prioritizing adult porn would reduce resources for prosecuting other crimes, including porn involving children. According to high-level sources who did not want to be identified, Acosta has assigned prosecutors porn cases over their objections.

Acosta, who told the Daily Business Review last month that prosecuting obscenity was a priority for Gonzales, did not return calls for comment.

Why this focus? Well, it is, of course, political in nature.

With the rapid growth of Internet pornography, stamping out obscene material has become a major concern for the Bush administration's powerful Christian conservative supporters. The Mississippi-based American Family Association and other Christian conservative groups have pressured the Justice Department to take action against pornography. The family association has sent weekly letters to U.S. attorneys around the country to pressure them to pursue the makers and distributors of pornography.

Now, I'm not going to go into a rant about the right or the left (or the radical center, to which I espouse), but I am going to say this: Is this what we want?

So, folks, think on this. What rights of expression are you willing to give up? Are you willing to live in a society where free speech is non-existent. Are you willing to live where government regulates what you can say and who you can say it to and what topics you may speak on?

This is the long, dangerous, slippery slope to something none of us want.