Originally Posted by Joe Obenberger

It does not really matter what Romney and his Attorney General want, anymore than it mattered very much what Bush and Ashcroft wanted.

The command went out from DC about Porn. Mary Beth Buchanan was the only US Attorney who was enthusiastic and she brought three cases, Extreme Associates, Adult DVD Empire (a quiety corporate gulty plea that involved shipping all the BDSM back to distributors) and the text case involving stories about kids. It looks like one US Attorney lost his job because of his reluctance/refusal to bring these cases. In the main, the career officials in Justice laughed these commands off, and only the very hardest material was charged. Except for Staliano. There, the Task Force That Couldn't Shoot Straight fell on their swords and couldn't manage to put on a convictable case. That's what happens when you have to rely on the very few volunteers over at DOJ who actually want to associate themselves with porn prosecutions.

When the final history of Porn in America is written, the truth will come out. This industry might have been largely destroyed in eight Bush years, but it was not - only because some very brave, very courageous, very down to earth US Attorneys, Assistant Attorneys General, and FBI Agents possessed some common sense too, and resisted direction from higher up. They sensed that it was a losing cultural battle, that it was a waste of manpower in the age of Terrorism, and they just did not feel that it was the right thing to do. Unsung heroes.