Bush administration targets obscenity

[madinmaryland]

Thursday, May 5, 2005 Posted: 11:13 AM EDT (1513 GMT)

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Thomas Lambert made no attempt to hide the kind of videos he peddled from his Montana home -- hard-core sex tapes involving bestiality, sadomasochism and simulated rape.

The 65-year-old former schoolteacher had little reason to believe he could get in trouble. He was selling tapes to adults who wanted them and there had not been a federal obscenity prosecution in Montana in at least 16 years, according to his lawyer, Mark Errebo.

But Lambert and co-defendant Sanford Wasserman were charged last spring with violating federal obscenity statutes. In pleading guilty, they joined a growing number of purveyors of pornography whom the Bush administration has pursued.

Since 2001, 40 people and businesses have been convicted and 20 additional indictments are pending, said Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Justice Department's child exploitation and obscenity section. By comparison, there were four such prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration, he said.

>>snip

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/05/05/obscenity.prosecutions.ap/index.html

Is it just me or was Laura Bush making comments about "W" and bestiality? Are they going after her too?

And... why aren't they concerned about Osama bin Laden?

[burn the bush]

1. they should start with the Laura bush joke off

[cybildisobedience]

27. yeah, why wasn't Laura carted off by police for her obscene comments?

the way that young man was at Ann Coulter's gig the other night?
I mean, if inappropriateness is the issue, why weren't the Gestapo ready to haul off Laura and the drapes she was wearing, press her face down into the cold cement, handcuff and drag her off to the hoose-gow?

[madinmaryland]

31. i'd love to see that!

:rofl:

[tmooses]

39. "The Lump" in cuffs-bestill my beating heart!

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. why aren't they concerned about Osama bin Laden?

Don't you know, sex is the real evil in the world, and the cause of all its problems. Gee, you are really going to have trouble fitting into the coming theocracy.

[AuntiBush]

10. Alot of us will.

"coming theocracy."

:rofl: Needed a good "one-liner." Maybe you could replace Pickles joke writer! Honestly...

[DanCa]

3. Hannity Rush Coulter and i am just warming up

If this were applied fairly it could actually hurt the gop. But they wont play fair now will they.

[KansDem]

4. This comment sure surprised me...

Since 2001, 40 people and businesses have been convicted and 20 additional indictments are pending, said Andrew Oosterbaan, chief of the Justice Department's child exploitation and obscenity section. By comparison, there were four such prosecutions during the eight years of the Clinton administration, he said.

I mean, who would have thought this kind of thing exploded during the Bush Administration, with all his posturing about "morals" and "personal responsibility?"

[mongo]

49. Clinton directed the FBI unit

To focus it's efforts on child pornography. Bush has taken these resources and put them back on adult obscenity enforcement.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. "our pilgrim's pride"

They won't be happy until the Salem witch trials are revived.

[raccoon]

6. Why not go after Cheney?

remember he used the F word in the halls of Congress.

[madinmaryland]

7. Just remember everyone, if a repub does

it, then it is acceptable.

:argh:

[calico1]

8. The whole Administration is obscene! n/t

[Robbien]

9. Since the Feds no longer go after corporate executive fraud

I guess they are using the extra time by going after the peep shows.

[OneBlueSky]

11. how is adult pornography more obscene than . . .

invading a sovereign nation; lying to the American people and Congress about why an invasion was necessary; destroying the country's infrastructure and its cities; killing and maiming tens of thousands of its citizens; occupying the country for an extended period; employing depleted uranium weapons, cluster bombs, and phosphorus and/or napalm against its people; causing the deaths of over 1500 American servicemen and women, and permanent injury to over 20,000 others; violating the Geneva Convention by torturing captives; and failing to account for billions of dollars of Americans' tax dollars poured into this illegal and immoral endeavor? . . .

now THAT's obscene! . . .

[madinmaryland]

20. and, what about the redistribution of wealth

in this country from the least affluent to the most affluent. That is also obscene.

[Megahurtz]

32. That's obscene for sure.

n/t

[jimshoes]

46. Where's Robin Hood

when you need him?

[billyoc]

21. Hey now, we go after the people

who try to film all that war stuff too, dontcha know. ;)

[Gregorian]

23. thank you

If only there were more people like you.

I don't cringe and tear up with extreme sadness over porn, like I do when I see an Iraqi mother who has lost a son due to a cluster bomb. That is worse than obscene.

The finger points at YOU Bush.

[ninkasi]

44. I agree 100%

The endless suffering, the misery, the shattering of lives on both sides of our illegal invasion of Iraq...that's obscene. Remember the picture of the little girl, her face filled with shock and grief, as she sat covered in her parent's blood? That alone is evidence of the whole obscenity that is the Bush administration.

The thought that our country...the U.S.A., is resorting to torture, and that it is being approved all the way up to the Oval Office, is obscene.

Our own Andy, who must raise huge sums of money in order to save his life, the life of a caring, wonderful man who is trying to save our democracy, while billions are casually given to the neocons and their buddies...that is an obscenity. There are many Andys out there, too. What about them?

The shame of the richest country in the world slashing social safety nets, and the hypocrisy of an administration who plants a male prostitute to lob softball questions to the pResident, while Helen Thomas is shut out...another obscenity. We have absolutely got to take our country back, and start now. We need to be laying the groundwork for 2006, and then the election in 2008. I only hope it's not already too late.

Thank you, OneBlueSky, for putting the whole thing into perspective. The rest of you who care, and who try to change things, thank you as well.

[Cha]

12. Or dickhead cheney when he tells

Senator Pat Leahy to go "fuck yourself" on the Senate floor..and dickhead goes on faux and says he "feels better" now that he's said that.

The bushits better clean up their own damned house first.

[jayfish]

13. Why The Guilty Plea? -NT-

Jay

[Megahurtz]

14. But what all is obcene?

Maybe this?:rofl:

http://www.vinylpop.com/bushFU2.html

[daleo]

15. Maybe he had a tape of Bush "milking a male horse".

As per Laura Bush's comments. Maybe Pickles filmed it before heading out to Chippendale's to catch some male strippers with Lynn Cheney (aka drawers stuffer, or something like that). Maybe he had a tape of Bush Sr. and Bush Jr. "talking about pussy" as Bush Sr. said they normally do. Or maybe a tape of Neil Bush with some Asian prostitutes, as he confessed to. With this bunch of Puritans, you just can't tell.

It is a good thing someone is watching out for peoples' morality.

[medeak]

16. snow penis is obscene?

http://www.azcentral.com/offbeat/articles/0503offensivesnow-ON.html

[Megahurtz]

25. Oh Jeez!

Could you imagine living in a place where your neighbors would make a phone call on you for something like this?:rofl:

[Dr Fate]

17. Starting a war based on Lies is obscene. n/t

n/t

[NYC Liberal]

18. I think we should call them what they really are:

Neo-Puritans.

[struggle4progress]

53. "Shitheads" is easier to pronounce and just as accurate. eom

[Zorra]

19. Obscenity targets the Bush administration....

Everyone in the Bush administration is a fucking fascist anti-American, anti-democracy POS.

[jazzjunkysue]

22. * admininstration = obscenity

[Fire Walk With Me]

24. Gannon? Are we in The Handmaid's Tale yet?

[silvermachine]

26. So, I assume they've put themselves in the crosshairs???

EOM

[FloridaPat]

28. This crap goes before a court and it gets tossed with 1st amendment rights

They still don't have a definition of obscenity. I could come upwith one and yes, Laura would be on that list.

[madinmaryland]

30. That's probably true, though if they get

a couple more of bush's judges, who knows what might happen.

The fact that they are proposing these laws is scary enough.

[mongo]

51. That doesn't stop them from getting convictions - or plea bargins

Under federal law you can get up to 5 years for a first offense. State laws vary.

And even though in the highly publicized Extreme Associates case, the judge threw out the case on the grounds that the obscenity laws are unconstitutional, convictions in other jurisdictions are still happening.

[MasonJar]

29. That means they'll have to put old GWB under lock and key.

[Kurovski]

33. I don't know how this guy thought tapes of beastiality

were not going to get him into trouble.

[htuttle]

37. 'Cuz he's from Montana?

Hey, just kidding Montanans!

[Ian David]

34. This makes me want to make porn. Anyone want to make "Political Porno"?

I was thinking of starting with "Focus on The Fucking Goes to Kansas."

We could start a new genre: Political Porn with a Purpose.

SCENE 12-- JAMES' HOTEL ROOM
FADE IN
INTERIOR DAY

JAMES SITS STARING INTENTLY AT HIS COMPUTER. HE RUBS HIS EYES TIREDLY AND GIVES A DEEP SIGH.

(knock on door)

JAMES: Come in.

FRED: Hello, Doctor. I came to remind you we have the conference on homosexual seduction tactics in fifteen minutes.

JAMES: Please, Reverend, you can call me James.

FRED: And you can call me Fred. Are you busy?

JAMES: No, I was just looking at homosexual pornography. I've been at it for hours now. It's absolutely disgusting. They're all going to Hell!

FRED: I know. God hates fags!

JAMES: Oh, I can't take any more of this. My eyes are burning and I feel queasy.

FRED: You look tense, James. Here, let me give you a massage.

CUE MUSIC (Gothic-style music FADES UP)

JAMES: Ah, that feels good. Maybe I should take off my shirt.

[mongo]

54. I had started a script once -

The Attorney General's daughter. It really was getting too long for a porno.

[Megahurtz]

35. THIS is obscene!!!

How dare they erect this phallic!!!



They need to investigate this now!!!

(If it's true, then we're all fucked LOL!)

:rofl:

[blogslut]

36. I'll

...wager this Thomas Lambert was at least sending his tapes through the mail. There's more to this story than just "icky beasty porn gets you arrested". Was he under-reporting his income to the IRS? Did he have the proper 2257 info?

He did something else, I'm betting.

[blogslut]

41. Just as I thought...

From the Morality in Media site itself:

http://www.moralityinmedia.org/nolc/index.htm?statutesIndex.htm

Montana doesn't have an obscenity law. So they want to make this a Federal case. Here's the Federal obscenity statutes:

# 18 U.S.C. 1461 -- Mailing obscene matter

# 18 U.S.C. 1462 -- Importation or use of a common carrier to transport obscene matter

# 18 U.S.C. 1464 -- Broadcasting obscene language

# 18 U.S.C. 1465 -- Interstate transportation of obscene matter

# 18 U.S.C. 1466 -- Wholesale and retail sale of obscene matter which has been transported in interstate commerce (must be engaged in business of selling or transferring obscenity)

# 18 U.S.C. 1468 -- Distribution of obscene matter by cable or satellite TV

# 47 U.S.C. 223 -- Making an obscene communication by means of telephone

I bet he was mailing the videos. They tried this with Rob Black. They failed.

[DoYouEverWonder]

38. If the DOJ wants to go after porn

the should start with Jeff Gannon and the WH. Last time I checked gay prostitution was still a crime, not to mention the ethical and religous issues that this raises.

[olddad56]

40. Well, it is about fucking time that asshole tackled obscenity.

[olddad56]

42. What could be more obscene than an illegal invasion?

[Fire Walk With Me]

43. Millions of Africans die of AIDS and they won't allow condoms at clinics

800,000 Nigerian Children orphaned by AIDS

http://www.naijapost.com/news/publish/printer_1029.shtml

800,000 Ugandans die of AIDS

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/957853.stm

And one of the first things Bush did in office was to deny funding to services distributing condoms if they even mentioned abortion.

There's an obsenity.

[madinmaryland]

45. But there is no oil in Africa

:mad:

As millions die of aids, starvation, and disease, this administration sits there more concerned about oil and PROFITS than anything else.

:grr:

[olddad56]

48. Wrong, lots of oil in Africa. More dead people, less Bushco has to kill.

[Bullshot]

47. The Bush Administration IS obscenity.

[Norquist Nemesis]

50. Yes! It's the "you know it when you see it" rule

I have to turn off the TV every time Bush et al invade my private space. It makes me physically ill.

[Triana]

52. What a waste of taxpayer money...

...they should be targeting OBL, domestic terrorists, the healthcare crisis, unemployment, alternative fuel sources (non-fossil fuel), environmental destruction by corprats, etc. But, they consider some squirrely man selling porn more important?

THIS from the party who considered lying about a BLOWJOB more impeachable an offense than LYING this country into a war that has costed thousands of innocent lives for nothing (well, except oil and profit for a few of bu$h's favourite 'binesses) and billions of dollars of taxpayer money, and sunk us into yet another record deficit.

Why am I NOT surprised? Republicans continue to have EXTREMELY serious issues with PRIORITIES, don't they?