Apolitical speech under threat... online censorship boosted by Sen. Dewine, Samuel Alito
Here is an insightful news story: Alito calls online-porn issue 'difficult' Quote:

In the second day of hearings before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Sen. Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, noted two attempts by Congress to restrict the availability of pornography on the Internet — the Communications Decency Act and the Child Online Protection Act — only to see the Supreme Court strike both down, "citing the First Amendment."

"What bothers me about these cases," DeWine said, "is they fail to account for something that to me seems relatively simple: The core of the First Amendment is the protection of political speech, but it seems to me that pornography is altogether different. Unlike political speech, pornography has little value, if it has any value at all.*"

*Emphasis mine

Sen. Dewine needs a reacquainting with the reality that there are far more Americans that find 'pornographic speech' useful and interesting, in day to day life, than political speech. Also, the Dewine statement is odd, because most establishment politicians are quick to defent non-political speech too... they would like to believe that religious and commercial speech are protected by the Constitution, not just "political speech".

Anyway it is clear they mean to obstruct the legal access to pornography by adults in the privacy of their own homes by the same burdensome, unconstitutional measures (like COPA) that the Supreme Court has previously shot down.

Porn fans need to pat themselves on the back for overcoming their traditional repugnance towards political speech, and for calling their Senators and bringing this issue out to the forefront of political debate. More action is required, across party lines.

Call your Senators on Monday A.M. or take some time to visit their Senate webpages and use their contact by e-mail webforms now! E-mails and webpages are listed here: Senate General Contact Information.

Call your local broadcast media or your favorite talk shows and be brave enough to bring this attack on our rights regarding porn and other 'non-political' speech to light. Make sure you tell them you consider protecting the constitution a non-partisan issue.

And it is clear: Pornography is not Obscenity. The Rove machine, and other cultural warriors have done everything they can to blend those boundaries, and it is time to take back those terms and reframe the debate based on law, not smirking, adolescent innuendo from the religious extremists...

Technorati Tags: Alito, pornography, First Amendment, obscenity, Senate, Dewine