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Tuesday, February 10, 2009
Janice Shaw Crouse :: Townhall.com Columnist
The Nightmarish Possibility of David Ogden at DOJ
by Janice Shaw Crouse
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Our new president has another big problem with one of his nominees. This one hasn’t made headlines yet, but if he is voted through this week by the Senate Judiciary Committee, you’ll hear plenty — and it’s a nightmarish possibility. David W. Ogden is President Obama’s nominee for Deputy Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ).

It would be difficult to find a person less desirable to be second in command at the nation’s top law enforcement agency, the person who would enforce the child pornography and obscenity laws. Throughout his 20-year legal career, David Ogden has argued for the rights of the pornographers over the protection of women and children.

Fidelis, a Catholic-based group of political, legal, research, and educational organizations that seek to defend life, faith, and family, has led the way in exposing David Ogden’s record of advocating that judges consider the social sciences, “worldwide consensus,” and international law to decide controversial cases, especially in cases involving underage “suffering” litigants who need “compassion” rather than Constitutional judgment.

Brian Burch, president of Fidelis, presents an air-tight case against Mr. Ogden’s appointment. Ogden, of course, believes that the Constitution is a “living” document, an argument that is used to enable judges to rule according to their whims rather than by the “rule of law.” Typically, he also has a record of supporting the whole package of the homosexual agenda and arguing against parental and spousal notification regarding abortion. We have become resigned to Obama legal appointees holding those leftist views, but Ogden takes it even further.

Burch systematically lays out a case against Ogden’s radical views, citing specific legal arguments that he used in cases about abortion (notification and waiting period requirements restrict a woman’s right to “choose” –– even in a case involving a 14-year-old girl), and homosexuality (represented professional psychological associations presenting positive arguments for “gay” parenting, “gays” in the military and the inheritance of homosexuality as an immutable characteristic).

Ogden goes far beyond the left into radical territory regarding pornography and obscenity. Burch’s memo states that Ogden, while an attorney in private practice, “filed briefs pushing for gays in the military, for continued racial preferences, and for a virtually unlimited abortion license.” Worse, Ogden argued for Playboy, Penthouse and the ACLU in obscenity and pornography cases. According to Fidelis, Ogden opposed the Children’s Internet Protection Act (CIPA) and the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act (CPOEA). The CIPA Act includes a provision requiring Internet filters in federally-funded libraries. The CPOEA Act requires verification that models in pornographic films be certified over age 18. Ogden argued that these requirements placed too heavy a burden on pornographers and infringed on filmmakers’ Constitutional rights. Ogden pushed for taxpayer funding to publish Playboy in Braille, he tried to get Playboy off the list of “pornographic” magazines, he argued for “consenting adults” to have telephone sex, and the list goes on and on in terms of his advocacy for lowering the barriers to moving pornography and obscenity into America’s mainstream.

Further, Mr. Ogden supported racial preferences and showed a lack of respect for private property rights. Ironically for a man who is nominated to uphold United States laws, he advocated the use of international law instead of U.S. law in court cases.

This is a man who opposes commonsense laws that have the support of the majority of Americans. He opposes commonsense restrictions on pornographers. With his firmly held belief in a “living” Constitution that can be adapted to fit the current situation, and his use of social science to “prove” the arguments he makes rather than depend on the “rule of law,” this is a dangerous man to be second in command at the Department of Justice.

Legal activism is always a concern, but when coupled with Ogden’s views, it becomes dangerous. In the DOJ position, he could use the courts as a vehicle for advancing the pro-abortion and homosexual agendas. A person in the DOJ position with his views could unleash the porn and obscenity industries and allow them open access to media and public spaces. The DOJ job would give him the opportunity to favor the pornographers over the people in a major way. It would allow him to open up the airways to obscenity and pornography and remove the last protections for our children.

In his confirmation hearings, Mr. Ogden dismissed his actions during his entire legal career as nothing more than his immaturity. Such a cavalier dismissal of the body of work that brought him the nomination is more than disingenuous, it is misleading and dangerous. The Obama administration has already overturned the Mexico City Policy so that the United States now sends funds to support organizations that promote prostitution and abortion around the world. Are we now looking at a future where the United States will also fund the international production and distribution of pornography?

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About The Author
Janice Shaw Crouse is a former speechwriter for George H. W. Bush and now political commentator for the Concerned Women for America Legislative Action Committee.
 
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Defending pornographers is the least
of his problems. David Ogden believes that the Supreme Court should use international law as their guidepost for constitutional interpretation. He also believes that the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the Child is binding on the U.S. even though the treaty has never come before the Senate for ratification. Some of you may remember the latter from Hillary's support of it. This should alarm every parent in this country as this Convention contains the core principle that the government may decide what it believes is best for each child without any proof of wrongdoing by the child's parents. I urge all conservatives to write to the members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to vote down Ogden's nomination.

Framing Your Objection
Of course, Ms. Crouse is a shill for the radical right wing Concerned Women for America. Do your own research. The LeHayes are anti-Catholic and and anti-Semites. They are the lunatic fringe - "The End Is Near" radical right wing Christians.

What she has done here is to attempt to frame her political objections as "problems." Where was she when Gonzo was screwing up Justice beyond all recognition. Since when do we judge lawyers by their clients? Ken Starr was a tobacco lawyer.

Keep it up and the GOP will be relegated to Miss. and Tenn.

David Hart
http://www.tips-Q.com

Ogden, Best Appointment?
Ogden may be Obama’s best appointment. At least we will have him where he can be watched closely, maybe kept in line for fear of being investigated and prosecuted criminally. Obama’s other dropouts are back, loose in society, some being investigated, but only for corruption and tax evasion. Given Harry Reid’s argument that payment of income taxes is voluntary in the U.S. nonpayment is not a crime, even a civil offense, and we may best follow the lead of Obama’s Cabinet members and failed appointees on that matter.

Send the nominee to sensitivity training


Libs have a fondness for punishing misdeeds no matter how innocuous by sentencing you to "sensitivity training."

I think it's even mandatory in some states.

Before this madness ends, let's send Akagi to sensitivity school; the little wank defender; but only on condition Ogden pleads his case in court.

Yeah; I can dream.


7Sticks
Cartoons would be protected that was the whole point behind Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition. The court agreed that virtual child porn was protected.

If a person was actually charged with a crime for having cartoons, I'd like to hear about it. Now perhaps he was charged with sending such pictures to a minor and then that is a different issue.

Those who are charged with child porn are charged with actually having real child porn. Thus the statement of "...the only child pornographers we have been going after are isolated nerds who like to get Japanese cartoon porn over the mail or off the internet." Is false.

One can argue that the sentences for simply downloading an image off the Internet are too harsh--i.e. the punishment doesn't fit the crime or going after images that aren't all that different than what you'd see in a pre-teen beauty contests which was the issue in Knox v. US (the Little Blondes case), but to say that people most people charged with child porn didn't have real child porn is totally false.


May I Ask How It Can Get Worse?
As far as I can tell, the only child pornographers we have been going after are isolated nerds who like to get Japanese cartoon porn over the mail or off the internet. Since when is it a punishable crime to possess something that either you or someone else created without the intent of harming children or imagining harming children? We just recently sentenced a man to twenty years in prison for child porn. Most of the counts were real, which is absolutely justifiable for prosecution. But a couple of these counts were cartoon pictures. Why should we count the fictionalized drawings of a cartoonist as heinous as actually harming a real child in producing real, harmful child porn? You are comparing apples and a hill of beans. What's next? We're going to go after Toni Morrison because she wrote about a father raping her daughter in the book "The Bluest Eye"? You are not going after the real child pornographers, but after a wild goose chase where you believe that "fact is fiction and TV's reality."

At least this David Ogden guy won't cover up the the Statue of Justice's naked breast the way that moral idiot John Ashcroft did.

The Law
"...the point. Lawyers are doign a good thing when they defend people: the breathless exasperation of conservatives is born of frustration and ignorance."

On this we agree.

Ken
Ahh the stupid TH popup for their stupid free email alerts strikes again which seems to make TH think you are logged off and the post you just posted goes poof--wonderful coders they!

No Ken it doesn't. You aren't too bright are you? It means they have no Moral objection to DEFENDING THEM. See the distinction? And in any case, he wasn't defending child porn but what some prudes considered child porn. From LaRue's descriptions of the "Little Blondes" case it seemed it was no more explicit than you'd find at a pre-teen beauty contest or a modeling site. I haven't looked that deeply into the case so I am taking LaRue's description at face value. I know it is a hazard to use fools as expert witnesses, but I take her--in this case--at her word.

Akagi
yes such things do occur. But as a rule, they don't. And even if the lawyer is convinced of his client's culpability, he still knows that the person is innocent until proven otherwise.

Regardless, he has an obligation to act as if his client were innocent unless the client indicates otherwise. Of course he can also indicate that he thinks a client is likely to be convicted.

In a way, its beside the point. Lawyers are doign a good thing when they defend people: the breathless exasperation of conservatives is born of frustration and ignorance.

Akagi
"Now if you have a moral objection to defending say rapists, you are not obligated to defend them, but if you to accept the case then you are obgligated to defend them to the max."

So you're saying Ogden has no moral objection to child pornographers? I don't find that very comforting.

Ken
I meant ethically. When you take a case, you are ethically bound to defend your client zealously within the bounds of the law. You can't suborn perjury, you can't allow others to perjure themselves, etc. But if in Ogden's "Little Blonde" case you argue forcefully for your client that the works are protected (even if you feel that they aren't).

Now if you have a moral objection to defending say rapists, you are not obligated to defend them, but if you to accept the case then you are obgligated to defend them to the max.

I know lawyers that won't defend those who are accused of drunk driving because of the fear that they will get them off and they will go and kill someone and they could never live with themselves after that. Others make a career of defending them.

It is not logic--it is the canon of ethics that lawyers abide by.

Baseball:

Didn't I explain this before? Supporting freedom means you support people to excercise their freedom without supporting the act itself per se. You know the Voltaire quote "I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."

John
A few things. Lawyers do indeed defend guilty (yet not yet proven) guilty parties and all at the appeals level. Lawyers would rather not KNOW their client is guilty as it opens up more avenues for your defense--you can out him on the stand, you can put Joe on the stand and say he saw him at Rick's Bar and thus was miles away when the rape or murder or arson or whatever happened. But if you know he did it you can't as they would be suborning perjury and that you can't do.

The two lawyers in the Westerfield case knew he was guilty as he was going to tell where the body was in exchange for the DA taking "death" off the table. They found the body anyway--no deal. So when they were defending him, they knew he was guilty.

The last part--100% correct. You'll defend Satan himself as long as someone pays the fee.

AKAGI 10:44

.....I only tried to answer your question of what porn is ...I gave my opinion nothing more ...

.....I would never presume to tell pathetic losers what to do with their time ...if you want to hack your haddock while watching sexually suggestive DVDs that's your business .....COLOSSUS

Ken
The responsbilities of lawyers are often completely misunderstood.

In the general sense, lawyers NEVER defend guilty parties. They defend accused parties. and in the US, the accused is innocent until a guilty verdict is returned.

Most people can parrot the concept of "innocent until proven guilty", but they do not really grasp what it actually means.

Furthermore, lawyers are experts at separating their own personal views from the legal aspects of a given case. That's part of their training.

Akagi
"Just as Ogden perhaps doesn't think the video I mentioned above is Constitutional, but that is his clients view and a view he is ethnically obligated to defend zealously."

I assume you meant "ethically" instead of "ethnically." Otherwise, the above sentence makes no sense.

For that matter, even if you meant "ethically", it still doesn't make sense. You're saying an attorney is ethically obligated to sacrifice his own sense of ethics if someone pays him to do it. That's a very twisted ethic.

Remember the old sitcom "Amen", where Sherman Hemsley played a shady lawyer? His daughter once asked him if he took an ethics class in law school. He said, "Sure! I got an 'A'." She asked how he did that, and he replied, "I cheated."

His logic makes about as little sense as yours.

Melissa
You at least, make a case. Not a very good one,but a case. For example, you quote Boorstin accurately but fail to note the germane point: "taxpayer funds to print Playboy Magazine's articles in Braille." In the case of articles, Playboy should be treated no differently than any other magazine which is printed in braille for use by American citizens. Playboy has printed volumes of quality writing by major figures in art, sports, literature,medicine, music and almost every other field of human endeavor. I am not aware of anyone who climas the written content of playboy is obscene or unworthy.

In this case, Ogden was absolutely correct in his position. In the case of the producers of "sexually explicit" materials, the issues were twofold. One, the paperwork requirements were onerous and violating the paperwork requirements was punishable by itself. In other words, if somone bungled the paperwork, a "producer" could go to jail even if the person in quesiton was over 18.

and two, "sexually explicit" was never defined. The law would have allowed enforcement officials to make unsupportable personal decisions about what constituted "sexually explicit."

In this case as well, Ogden was right.


Ken
No it is not. A attorney is to defend his client's position. His client--say the producers of "Little Blondes"--argue under the statues their product can't be considered child porn and was thus legally protected under the First Amendment as defined under Miller.

In the Playboy case, his clients argued that paying for one set of legal publications to be made available into braille and not another based solely on its content was a gross example of government censorship.

Ogden may have agreed with both of these positions, but the point is he was hired to defend this positions--that is what attorneys do.

But if you want a closer example, try National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977). The ACLU argued that they had a right to march in Skokie but I doubt they agreed with the NSPA's message. It has also represented the Klan--in Missouri--over the state trying to prevent it from taking part in the adopt a highway program. Again, the ACLU doesn't support the Klan's view just that they have the right to be in the program. Just as Ogden perhaps doesn't think the video I mentioned above is Constitutional, but that is his clients view and a view he is ethnically obligated to defend zealously.


Akagi
"Don't attorneys also defend murderers, rapists and the like? That is their job, correct?"

It's one thing to see that a murderer or a rapist gets a fair trial. It's quite another to argue that murder and rape are protected by the Constitution. Your question is nothing but a red herring.

Melissa
It doesn't follow that just because he has defended clients such as Playboy and others some of which that pushed the limits of what is legal ("Little Blondes"), it doesn't mean he'll go and push for child porn to be legalized which is the case nuts like Crouse and LaRue are trying to make. I rather doubt the ACLU shared the views of its clients in the case of National Socialist Party of America v. Village of Skokie (1977) either.




Melissa
If the government is going to print SI in braille and then they are going to have to do the same for Playboy--to not would make it government censorship.


Second, the "personal" verification that models were over 18 would in fact be an undue burden as Ogden pointed out. Just look at the case of Ashley Alexandra Dupre--who appeared in a Girl's Gone Wild video at 17 (when she provided ID to the independent contractor film crew that she was 21). Should Joe Francis have to personally verify all of the girls his film crews film all over the US are 18? That would be in fact an undue burden. And even if you argue the legal claims are without merit--Ogden is representing his client--THAT IS WHAT HE IS SUPPOSED TO DO--represent his clients.

The claim that from a mental stance 14 years olds and 18 year olds are about the same is probably true.

The Meese Commission was total BS and politically motivated and filled with anti-Porn religious fanatics--Like Dobson. It has been called "biased, incredible, and inaccurate..."

And wasn't he indicited. Real man of character he. The sad thing was he was one of the election monitors the Heritage Foundation sent to observe the 1996 Taiwan presidential election--Taiwan has enough corrupt political figures. It doesn't need to import American ones.

For parental notification, we agree. I think there should be notification and a method for judicial override--daddy is the one that got me pregnant, daddy will kill me, etc.

And I am a Libertarian. I voted for Barr and wished McCain had won (but knew he wouldn't). But don't think Obama is a communist, Marxist, closet Muslim, anti-American, terrorist loving, anti-Christ either. I have no real compliants with him so far. We'll see how long that lasts.

Continued to John
"[E]mpirical studies have found few differences between minors aged 14-18 and adults in their understanding of information and their ability to think of options and consequences when asked to consider treatment-related decisions. These unvarying and highly significant findings indicate that with respect to the capacity to understand and reason logically, there is no qualitative or quantitative difference between minors in mid-adolescence, i.e., about 14-15 years of age, and adults." -David Ogden

Ogden represented several communications trade associations challenging provisions of the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988. He convinced the court that requiring producers of pornographic materials to personally verify that models were over age 18 at the time the materials were made would "burden too heavily and infringe too deeply on the right to produce First Amendment protected material." American Library Association v. Thornburgh, 713 F.Supp. 469, 477 (D.D.C. 1989).

Ogden represented Playboy Enterprises, among others, seeking an order forcing the Library of Congress to use taxpayer funds to print Playboy Magazine's articles in Braille against the express wishes of Congress. American Council for the Blind v. Boorstin, 644 F.Supp. 811 (1986).

Ogden represented Playboy Enterprises seeking an injunction against the inclusion of Playboy in a list of pornographic magazines that would potentially be included in the Meese Commission report. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Meese, 746 F.Supp. 154 (D.D.C. 1990).

I have been a "left-winger" all my adult life. I consider myself to be very liberal. I vote Democrat. I voted for Obama. But I have daughters. And the desire to protect them from obscenity. I also think I have the right to know if they plan to have an abortion. Call me a loser now.



Continued to John in PA
"[E]mpirical studies have found few differences between minors aged 14-18 and adults in their understanding of information and their ability to think of options and consequences when asked to consider treatment-related decisions. These unvarying and highly significant findings indicate that with respect to the capacity to understand and reason logically, there is no qualitative or quantitative difference between minors in mid-adolescence, i.e., about 14-15 years of age, and adults." -David Ogden

Ogden represented several communications trade associations challenging provisions of the Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act of 1988. He convinced the court that requiring producers of pornographic materials to personally verify that models were over age 18 at the time the materials were made would "burden too heavily and infringe too deeply on the right to produce First Amendment protected material." American Library Association v. Thornburgh, 713 F.Supp. 469, 477 (D.D.C. 1989).

Ogden represented Playboy Enterprises, among others, seeking an order forcing the Library of Congress to use taxpayer funds to print Playboy Magazine's articles in Braille against the express wishes of Congress. American Council for the Blind v. Boorstin, 644 F.Supp. 811 (1986).

Ogden represented Playboy Enterprises seeking an injunction against the inclusion of Playboy in a list of pornographic magazines that would potentially be included in the Meese Commission report. Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Meese, 746 F.Supp. 154 (D.D.C. 1990).

I have been a "left-winger" all my adult life. I consider myself to be very liberal. I vote Democrat. I voted for Obama. But I have daughters. And the desire to protect them from obscenity. I also think I have the right to know if they plan to have an abortion. Call me a loser now.



To John in PA
Had you done your research, you would know that the issue is not that Mr. Ogden argued to publish Playboy in Braille, but the fact that he wanted to use tax dollars to do it, citing it was an ACLU issue. In that case, you make a valid point and your argument works against you. Exactly why would a blind person need to view a Playboy magazine...?

This article may not go into as much depth as I'd like or cite as many of the cases as it should, but if you do some real research on David Ogden, you will find that the facts are true. His case records prove it. The statements in the article come from quotations he himself made. Here are the cites for some of them:


Right Wing Losers
Once again, the right wing goes into cardiac arrest because sex is involved. You people really need long term therapy. This article is trash.

First, Crouse fails to proide the most critical piece of any argument, which would be actual quotes or actual positions taken by Ogden. Instead, in the dishonest fashion of the right winger, she TELLS us what Ogden thinks instead of letting us decide for ourselves. In the dishonest style of the right winger, she tells us what Ogden's view of the COnstitution is without out ever bothering to provide an actual quote from Ogden.

Does Ogden think that judges should be allowed to rule by "whim" instead of law, as Crouse says? We do not know, becuase she never bothers to examine what Ogden may actually have said on the subject.

There is one colossal absurdity in the piece. Crouse castigates Ogden for arguing that Playboy be produced in braille, as if that is a terrible thing. Can she or anyone explain how Playboy can be pornographic to a BLIND PERSON!


Baseball
I think the DVD and pay for view pretty much killed off the adult movie house and most places that lease space to movie theatres require them not to show anything rated X. A rating that has been hijacked by the porn industry (even creating ratings that don't exist--XX, XXX, XXXX) and thus the rise of NC-17. Would Se Jie then be porn? As I said rather graphic sex scenes.

And who are you to tell what "losers" can do or the people that carter to losers?

Ken
Don't attorneys also defend murderers, rapists and the like? That is their job, correct?

WHAT IS PORN?

.....AKAGI ...

.....I know standards differ but to me porn is material that is meant to arouse and to stimulate a sexual response in the viewer ...

.....Porn debases human sexuallity by reducing human behavior to the level of animals in rut ...sex without love is animalistic ...this is totally different from a nude painting or statue that display the beauty of the human form ...

....In other words museums are OK but XXX movies houses where pathetic losers go to masturbate are not .....COLOSSUS
....

Ken
The courts have rule that actual child porn is not protected speech and this will not change. What LaRue and others do is try to commingle legal porn with illegal porn and then use such mindless phrases like "the rights of pornographers over those of women and children."

However, the court did strike down a number of provisions in the 1996 Child Pornography Prevention Act on the issue of virtual child porn--that are images produced by a computer or adults made to look as if they were minors. The court ruled that since the object of the ban on child porn was to prevent children from being harmed and no real child was being harm in these cases, this part of the act was unconstitutional.

The court ruled under the act films like Traffic and American Beauty could fall under the overly broad child porn statue. Before you blame liberals--Thomas also agreed in Concurrence to strke down parts of the 1996 Act.

The case if you are curious is Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition (2002).


From the top
"...Obama has met some lawyers while he attended Harvard who would serve and honor our U.S. Constitution with integrity!"

To paraphrase Hugo Black in regards to obscenity cases. The Constitution says Congress shall make no law and that is exactly what it means.

Seems Ogden will do exactly that serve and honor the Constitution instead of being some anti-freedom nutcase like some at the Bush DOJ.

D
Please show us any evidence that the DOJ will not go after illegal (e.g. child porn) under Obama. Elections have consequences--Bush was hard-line in going after what he saw as "obscene." And it wasn't all that supported by the rank and file at DOJ who made comments like "going after porn? Is the war on terror over? Has OBL been captured?"

Was going after Extreme Associates really all that important? A group that made rather well extreme films, but if the actors and actresses were willing and over 18 (as they were) and the buyers willing and over 18 (they were). Who cares?

Before some wiseguy calls me a porn fiend. Libertarians support freedom even if we may not like what you do with that freedom. I would never do cocaine, but if you want to do cocaine or drink gasoline--your body, go ahead.

Tea
"The trolls can mock all they want, but God is not mocked, we will see in the not too distant future that God has lifted his Hand from us. He WILL bring us to our knees in repentence, this land was dedicated to Him before it was ever settled..."

Yeah. I am sure. Some hurricane will land or an earthquake and it is God's judgement over porn. What primatives. Like I'm talking to some tribe in the backwoods of New Guinea who think the volcano over the next ridge is a god.

I remember one fool saying Hurricane Opal (and the minor Hurricane Erin) was god's wrath because gays would make out and stuff on Pensacola Beach. Falwell blamed 9/11 on gays and on and on. Mindless.

RW
(Can we get some better columnists here?)

No.

And why have basically the same exact column twice in the last week?

If LaRue and Crouse don't like porn--great. Don't look at it and please tell me what is porn? Is the recent movie Si Jie directed by Li An (Lust, Caution directed by Ang Lee) porn. I bet Crouse and LaRue would think so. Some rather graphic sex scenes including a pretty violent rape scene. I don't like dried out prudes like LaRue and Crouse either--lots of things in life we get not to like--deal with it.

renny:

Legal protections for porn go back to 1957 in Roth v. US not to Miller in 1973. What Miller did was extended protections over the LAPS test established in Roth. (Also see Memoirs v. MA (1966). And even if so--who cares. The court didn't strike down anti-miscegenation laws until 1967 or segregation laws until 1954 or that married couples had a right of privacy until 1965. Should we throw out DC v. Heller then because it came down in 2008?

THE NAKED COMMUNIST

24. Eliminate all laws governing obscenity by calling
them "censorship" and a violation of free speech and
free press.

25. Break down cultural standards of morality by
promoting pornography and obscenity in books,
magazines, motion pictures, radio, and TV.

26. Present homosexuality, degeneracy and promiscuity
as "normal, natural, healthy." ...

.....3 points from the Communist Internationale blueprint for World Domination .....COLOSSUS

Social Liberalism
In reply to Cavell: "Social conservatism: the paralyzing fear that someone, somewhere, is having a good time."

Liberalism: The feat that someone, someplace might not be engaging in self-destructive behavior. Alternate definition: Shoving self-destructive down everyone's throat, in the name of feeling better about myself.

sjpatejak
you whine, "Let's get this straight...
the president appointed someone who agrees with him on a wide range of issues." clearly, the one appointed those who agree with him on obeying the law when he appointed a series of criminals to his cabinet. collect your welfare check and shut up.

Judge Bork
Once wrote a book titled, "Slouching toward Gomorrah."..I don't think we are slouching anymore, we are at warp speed. The trolls can mock all they want, but God is not mocked, we
will see in the not too distant future that God has lifted his Hand from us. He WILL bring us to our knees in repentence, this land was dedicated to Him before it was ever settled,
at Plymouth and at Cape Henry and He will bring us back to Him one way or another. Unfortunately by voting for this criminal, ungodly enterprise, we will be in for a rough
ride.

hahaha
Scare quotes to support scare tactics!

sjpatejak collects stroke magazines


Oh, how illuminating, SJ--Porn appeals to you!

Well, it's everywhere. Now we have an Obama wank who pleads for wanker's rights; right up your alley. (Or are you a lefty?)

Let's get this straight...
the president appointed someone who agrees with him on a wide range of issues, who once represented Playboy magazine. In this day Playboy is about as pornographic as Titian. However, I am interested in the idea of Playboy in braille. Do they really read it for the articles:)

fan
"You always write about her "sex obsessions" and ask TH to publish other columnists."

"Always?" Now that's a new one, especially since Ms. Shaw Crouse is the one who obsessively writes about sex and deviance each week. Maybe if you were an actual conservative, you would have noticed that they're not as inclined to sexual pathologies as this woman.


oh my
What is with this silly trend to put quotes around any word which apparently one finds objectionable?


weird
Crouse says "he argued for “consenting adults” to have telephone sex". Does this mean he thinks that adults who consent about having sex should be encouraged to have telephone sex? Or is Crouse upset that he thinks that adults should be allowed to use telephones to engage in activities they both want to do?

Does she have a copy of the constitution that makes telephone sex any of the government's business? She claims to want the constitution applied as written, but she seems to want to add her own values to it.

What is most notable about the column is the large number of quotation marks as compared with the small number of actual quotes. In fact there are none from Ogden whose view she is supposedly exposing.

Remember when?
Remember when conservatives were always whining about "Bush Derangement Syndrome"?

It's kinda fun to see the shoe on the other foot.

WAS OGDEN OBAMA'S ROOM MATE?
Surely Obama has met some lawyers while he attended Harvard who would serve and honor our U.S. Constitution with integrity!

Why do you think he unlocked the Mexico City policy? Why do you think he selected Ogden out of millions of lawyers?

Obama is well on his way to dismantling our Constitution, Bill of Rights and our Declaration of Independence!

As soon as the Supreme Court Justices retire from old age or retire, Obama will continue to destroy more laws of the land with his appointments.

He will appoint activist judges on every federal district bench in the country.

Watch for the 22nd Amendment to fall or at least an attempt to abolish it!

Child pornography is "free speech"?
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe the courts have ruled that child pornography is NOT protected by the First Amendment.

Most decent people find it hard to defend the exploitation of children, particularly in a sexual manner. I guess some liberals aren't so decent.

What about the AG, he was as bad
There may be one person who is just as bad as this turkey, his boss. Remember whey he was allowed to serve in the same job and he was so bad he could not be confirmed. Clinton had to break a few laws to put him in there and keep him in the job. Most Americans don't know we have such awful people in this country. They should read some of the left wing blather in some of the left wing mags. Those people are sick.

To RW

Looks to me like you are the one with the obsession. You always write about her "sex obsessions" and ask TH to publish other columnists. What's the deal? You a frustrated writer who can't get published or just a bored, out-of-work lefty hanging around TH to harass conservatives?

The sky is falling
The sky is falling.

Conservatives need to learn a different tune.

This one is getting old.


JACK
How do you figure a picture of a nude is free speech? if its free,then why do they have to use codes to keep certain people from looking at it!lets face it,it's filth and it's money in the greedy porno's pocket?Why isn't the bible allowed in schools or the ten commandments listed in the court house? Isn't that free speech?

The whole case against...
... Ogden hinges on the idea that an attorney defending a client doing x must therefore think x is a swell idea. Even someone with Janice Shaw Crouse's wierd sexual obsessions must see the fallacy in that.

"represented professional psychological associations presenting positive arguments..."
Try saying that 10 times fast.

(Can we get some better columnists here?)


Spousal Notification???????
What kind of marriage needs the government to legislate that the partners be open and honest with each other? Is this actually a law in any state?

The fact is pornogrpahy was only
granted *free speech* rights in 1972 by the same idiot Sup. Ct. that gave us the f-word through Cohen v CA and abortion through Roe.

What a banner year for *rights* and an abyss for reponsibility, tradition, morality, and sanity.

Ogden
I for one have written at least half of the Senators on the committee urging them to vote no on his appointment. This appointment is the most frightening of all. I love the fact that he suddenly saw the errors of his ways when testifying before the committee. Everyone should email the persons on this committe. He is too dangerous to let slip through like Geithner. I for one would prefer a tax cheat rather than a person who has been in the bed with the porn industry (pardon the pun). It just seemed appropriate!

Ogden is one of the first means
of destroying any Am. tradition or morality that Bill Ayers and Saul Alynski taught the Big O.

Write the idiots empowered to confirm him. The only way we can express ourselves is email. All the Sens. have email links on their sites.

Write Snowe, Collins, and Spector to vote "no" on the simulus which only designed to raise taxes, indebt us to China and Saudi Arabia, and create unstoppable inflation down the line.

Wow
Dismissing his actions over so many years as immaturity? And I suppose he thinks he is mature now. How was that transformation made?

This "living document" idea about the Constitution is such a misnomer. It is actually a 'dead document" concept, since it basically says the Constitution has no legal weight.

No morals? No ethics? NO PROBLEM!!!
We are watching a virtual and literal slime factory of a man being appointed to our DOJ.
And excusing himself because he was immature? What an imbecilic, lying, demonic, empty-hearted moron!!! There's no excuse for what he has done except that he did it because he needed the power and the money!! "HOG"DEN doesn't care about anyone but himself. His own ego may even dwarf that of Obama's. Does he have children? Who is he married to? This dirty individual needs to be put on the torture rack of truth until the truth comes out of him. Another slime ball for hire to display the GROPE AND STAIN rhetoric dribbled and drooled by Zero our morally deficient leader.

What an absolute travesty is being perpetrated on Americans. The new symbol of the USA: "Transparency?" LIKE, IN A CONDOM?????

Don't like it? Don't watch it!
Of all the reasons to say this man isn't qualified you single out his defense of pornography? Isn't that just cherry picking issues you don't happen to like and making over-reaching judgments? There's a word for that you know. It's called arrogance.

So the man defended pornography on the grounds of the first amendment. That's good. Pornography is just as entitled to free speech as anything so long as the people involved are not forced into the act. If you checked your facts, you would understand that. But you don't because he just doesn't agree with your worldview. But just because he defends things that you don't like doesn't make him any less qualified. It just makes you arrogant.

Just more bad news
According to MSNBC, judges in California are getting ready to order the release of between 37,000 and 52,000 prisoners due to overcrowding.

That should make California an interesting place to live

http://www.msnbc.msn/com/id/29108435

Fits in well with this nominee.
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