http://www.koarecords.com/details_asian.jpg

For their April edition, one can only hope it was a misguided "April Fools" article, but nationally, they've managed to offend two large demographic groups. Protests, petitions and letter writing campaigns are already in progress.

Hey MikeMover, better look out, there's an Ashcroft under yer bed.

Bot

Administration wages war on pornography
Obscenity: For the first time in 10 years, the U.S. government is spending millions to file charges across the country.

By Laura Sullivan
Sun National Staff
Originally published April 6, 2004
WASHINGTON - Lam Nguyen's job is to sit for hours in a chilly, quiet room devoid of any color but gray and look at pornography. This job, which Nguyen does earnestly from 9 to 5, surrounded by a half-dozen other "computer forensic specialists" like him, has become the focal point of the Justice Department's operation to rid the world of porn.

In this field office in Washington, 32 prosecutors, investigators and a handful of FBI agents are spending millions of dollars to bring anti-obscenity cases to courthouses across the country for the first time in 10 years. Nothing is off limits, they warn, even soft-core cable programs such as HBO's long-running Real Sex or the adult movies widely offered in guestrooms of major hotel chains.

Department officials say they will send "ripples" through an industry that has proliferated on the Internet and grown into an estimated $10 billion-a-year colossus profiting Fortune 500 corporations such as Comcast, which offers hard-core movies on a pay-per-view channel.

The Justice Department recently hired Bruce Taylor, who was instrumental in a handful of convictions obtained over the past year and unsuccessfully represented the state in a 1981 case, Larry Flynt vs. Ohio.

Flynt, who recently opened a Hustler nightclub in Baltimore, says everyone in the business is wary, making sure their taxes are paid and the "talent" is over 18. He says he's ready for a rematch, especially with Taylor.

"Everyone's concerned," Flynt said in an interview. "We deal in plain old vanilla sex. Nothing really outrageous. But who knows, they may want a big target like myself."

A recent episode of Showtime's Family Business, a reality show about Adam Glasser, an adult film director and entrepreneur in California, had him worrying about shipping his material to states more apt to prosecute. It also featured him organizing a pornographic Internet telethon to raise money for targets of prosecution.

Drew Oosterbaan, chief of the division in charge of obscenity prosecutions at the Justice Department, says officials are trying to send a message and halt an industry they see as growing increasingly "lawless."

"We want to do everything we can to deter this conduct" by producers and consumers, Oosterbaan said. "Nothing is off the table as far as content."

Money and friends

It is unclear, though, just how the American public and major corporations that make money from pornography will accept the perspective of the Justice Department and Attorney General John Ashcroft.

Any move against mainstream pornography could affect large telephone companies offering broadband Internet service or the dozens of national credit card companies providing payment services to pornographic Web sites.

Cable television, meanwhile, which has found late-night lineups with "adult programming" highly profitable, is unlikely to budge, and such companies have powerful friends.

Brian Roberts, the CEO of Comcast, which offers "hard-core" porn on the Hot Network channel (at $11.99 per film in Baltimore), was co-chair of Philadelphia 2000, the host committee that brought the Republican National Convention to Philadelphia. In February, the Bush campaign honored Comcast President Stephen Burke with "Ranger" status, for agreeing to raise at least $200,000 for the president's re-election effort. Comcast's executive vice president, David Cohen, has close ties to Gov. Edward G. Rendell of Pennsylvania, a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee.

Tim Fitzpatrick, the spokesman for Comcast at its corporate headquarters in Philadelphia, declined to comment on the cable network's adult programming. But officials at the National Cable and Telecommunications Association, which Roberts used to chair, said adult programming is legal, relies on subscription services for access and has been upheld by the courts for years.

"Good luck turning back that clock," said Paul Rodriguez, a spokesman for the association.

Ashcroft vs. consent

In a speech in 2002, Ashcroft made it clear that the Justice Department intends to try. He said pornography "invades our homes persistently though the mail, phone, VCR, cable TV and the Internet," and has "strewn its victims from coast to coast."

Given the millions of dollars Americans are spending each month on adult cable television, Internet sites and magazines and videos, many may see themselves not as victims but as consumers, with an expectation of rights, choices and privacy.

Ashcroft, a religious man who does not drink alcohol or caffeine, smoke, gamble or dance, and has fought unrelenting criticism that he has trod roughshod on civil liberties in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, is taking on the porn industry at a time when many experts say Americans are wary about government intrusion into their lives.

The Bush administration is eager to shore up its conservative base with this issue. Ashcroft held private meetings with conservative groups a year and a half ago to assure them that anti-porn efforts are a priority.

But administration critics and First Amendment rights attorneys warn that the initiative could smack of Big Brother, and that targeting such a broad range of readily available materials could backfire.

"They are miscalculating the pulse of the community," said attorney Paul Cambria, who has gone head to head with Taylor in cases dating to the 1970s.

"I think a lot of adults would say this is not what they had in mind, spending millions of dollars and the time of the courts and FBI agents and postal inspectors and prosecutors investigating what consenting adults are doing and watching."

The law itself rests on the landmark 1973 Supreme Court decision in Miller vs. California, which held that something is "obscene" only if an average person applying contemporary community standards finds it patently offensive. But until now, it hasn't been prosecuted at the federal level for more than 10 years.

Since the last time he faced Taylor, Flynt's empire has grown into a multimillion-dollar corporation with a large, almost conservative-looking headquarters in California, where he and executives in dark suits oversee the company's dozens of men's clubs, sex stores and more than 30 magazines.

"He's basically crusaded against everything I've fought for for the past 30 years," Flynt said. "This is for consenting adults. They have the right to view what they want to in the privacy of their own home. And even if they don't enjoy these materials, they still don't want to be looking over their neighbors' shoulders."


More at Baltimore Sun website.

God I hate to see that, there's nothing worse than a bible thumper witha cause. I highly doubt the conservitive base that thinks soft porn is a serious issue is going to vote for John Kerry.

About a year ago someone opened a porn store in the country about 15 miles from town near a highway exit. As usual our local church group gave them the best advertising campaign anyone could ask for because most people didn't even know it existed.

Now we have NO PORN STORE signs all over the place and people are having to explain to 5 year olds what a porn store is, so who's really guilty of hurting our youth?

Heres and atricle about it.

Rural Porn Shops on the Rise
by Terry Phillips, correspondent

SUMMARY: You might expect small towns to be free of
big-time pornography businesses. You'd be wrong.

A growing number of small towns are getting surprised when
high-powered porn peddlers set up shop. In fact, experts
say the formula that attracts smut businesses is a small
town with unsophisticated zoning laws near an interstate
highway.

Perry, Mich., is an example. Its population is 2,000
people and one "adult entertainment outlet."

"This is not in sync with the values of their community,"
said Brad Snavely, executive director of the Michigan
Family Forum. "But often what happens (is), after the
fact, it's very difficult to (get rid of a porn
business)."

Perry, like most small towns, had only a couple kinds of
zoning on the books. Mayor Steve Daunt said the city was
looking to update its regulations, but didn't move quickly
enough.

"This company literally slipped into town and opened up
one Sunday evening," he said, "just before we could get
our ordinance into effect."

Although it can be difficult to get rid of a porn
business, it's not impossible, according to Dan Panetti,
an attorney with the National Coalition for the Protection
of Children and Families.

"The city can regulate the business based on time, place
and manner (of operation) and make it a very difficult
process for these establishments to operate," Panetti
explained.

But such a fight can be costly, so acting beforehand by
reviewing zoning ordinances regularly remains the best
strategy.

"(Porn shops) are extremely well-funded," Panetti said.
"They want to make a buck. It's up to the community to
say, 'Listen, you're not going to make your buck here. Go
make your buck somewhere else.' "
_______________________________________________

And the response
Dear Jesus,

Give strength to those who are in You and ensnared by this wicked habit of watching lust in action.

By Your grace, truth and love heal them.

For those who are addicted and without You, help them see it's a bad habit and may they desire to quit it.

And for those peddling this disgusting videos. On cable as well as on video.
Put them under Your feet. May their business fail because people abstain from buying into it.

In Your Holy Name,
AMEN.

I heard the September 11 suicide hijackers spent their training "off" time watching porn on cable TV.

MedMech,
You think there's nothing worse than a Bible thumper with an agenda?
How about----
an environmentalist with an agenda?
an anti-gun rights nazi with an agenda?
an anti SUV crusader with an agenda?
PETA people?
big, (and bigger) government do-gooders who want to legislate your life?

the list could go on, but you get the idea. There are many people at least as scary as Christians. The problem is not their beliefs; its the idea that THEY have the right, or obligation to run your life.

Agreed, I guess the bottom line is anyone with an agenda to restrict rights is a danger.

BUT I LIKE MY PORN!!!!!!

I mean, hell, you can't do it for real anymore with worrying about blowing up or something. Can't they just leave a guy alone? Maybe this is the time to bring up that "reduced incidence of prostate cancer" argument....:p

__________________
TClanton
1980 450SL 90K
1980 300SD 112K