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Mitt Romney aide promises crackdown on porn.

Einzige

Einzige

Elitist as Hell.
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One normally expects this sort of nanny-statism to come out of the populist, class-war oriented wing of the GOP, i.e. Santorum and Huckabee. It's too bad Romney dipped his toes in this sort of politics. I might have been able to vote for him in 2008.

What more reason do I need to vote for Gary Johnson?

Mitt Romney Aide Promises Crackdown On Porn

Republican Mitt Romney insists his No. 1 job is fixing the economy but a former Reagan administration anti-porn prosecutor says the candidate's campaign has assured him that he also will "vigorously" crack down on pornographers if he is elected president.

Patrick Trueman, a former head of the Justice Department's Child Exploitation and Obscenity Section and now the head of Morality in Media, told the conservative Daily Caller that he was quietly promised that fighting porn will be a top priority in a Romney White House.

Trueman said he and another anti-porn prosecutor from the 1980s Justice Department, Bob Flores, met earlier this year with Alex Wong, Romney's foreign and legal policy director..

“Wong assured us that Romney is very concerned with this, and that if he’s elected these laws will be enforced,” Trueman told the website. ”They promised to vigorously enforce federal adult obscenity laws.”

Around the time Trueman says he received those assurances, Romney signed Morality in Media's anti-porn pledge along with Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum, whom he was still battling for the GOP nomination. Since then, he hasn't mentioned the issue very often.

Romney seemed to say the right words for Trueman in 2007, when he was campaigning for president in Iowa the last time. "We got to clean up the water that our kids are swimming in," he said in a TV ad. "And by that I mean the pornography, the drug culture, the violence, the sex, the perversion that bombards them day in and day out. So I want to make sure we enforce our obscenity laws."

Romney has promised that if elected president he would require every new computer be sold with a porn filter.

Despite those tough words, Romney's campaign has taken campaign cash from the head of a company that produces hard-core pornography. And gay porn filmmaker Michael Lucas, who has endorsed Romney, told the Daily Caller, “I don’t see any danger coming from Romney when it comes to porn. It’s just not there."

There may be another reason Romney isn't talking up porn: he needs the support of millions of primary voters who supported Ron Paul, who did not make opposition to sexually explicit materials a campaign plank.
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Romney was simply telling these idiots what they want to hear in order to get money and support. The pornography industry has tons of money and has more than enough lobbying power to prevent a crackdown.
 
rathi said:
Romney was simply telling these idiots what they want to hear in order to get money and support. The pornography industry has tons of money and has more than enough lobbying power to prevent a crackdown.
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That's even worse. Romney is a grade-A, unprincipled panderer, and has proven himself absolutely unwilling (or unable) to tell these people what they need to hear.

The hallmark of a statesman is the ability to look his supporters in the face and tell them "no". The only candidate on the ballot I know of who has a proven willingness to do this is Gary Johnson.
 
So the evidence of Romney's support for porn legislation is a guy who spoke to a guy who advises Romney.....several months ago.
 
tessaesque said:
So the evidence of Romney's support for porn legislation is a guy who spoke to a guy who advises Romney.....several months ago.
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Is there a reason why we ought to assume that this Trueman fellow isn't telling us the truth? It's more likely a former aide is more willing to be honest about his former campaign's agenda than a current adviser.
 
Einzige said:
Is there a reason why we ought to assume that this Trueman fellow isn't telling us the truth? It's more likely a former aide is more willing to be honest about his former campaign's agenda than a current adviser.
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Maybe, maybe not.
 
Remember back in the 1990s, how Clinton pledged to require all televisions to be installed with V-chips?

Conservatives back then called it 'nanny-statism'. And they were right.
 
PeteEU said:
Well Mormons are against porn, as are evangelical Christians so no big shocker. Now saying that,

Porn in the USA: Conservatives are biggest consumers - science-in-society - 27 February 2009 - New Scientist

Utah is the biggest consumer of online porn in the US, so... hypocrites?
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I don't think anyone's surprised by that.

Look, I don't begrudge conservatives a little hypocrisy in opposing porn and utilizing it all the same. That sort of hypocrisy is to be expected of all moralists, regardless of their position on the political spectrum. Much more galling to me is their willingness to, say, attack Clinton for being a nanny-statist on the V-chip, and then turn around and support requiring OS developers to install parental controls on every operating system sold in the nation. That's hypocritical for far more profound reasons - namely, unnecessarily interfering in the operations of a privately-held company.
 
Einzige said:
That's even worse. Romney is a grade-A, unprincipled panderer, and has proven himself absolutely unwilling (or unable) to tell these people what they need to hear.

The hallmark of a statesman is the ability to look his supporters in the face and tell them "no". The only candidate on the ballot I know of who has a proven willingness to do this is Gary Johnson.
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First of all, if there's any candidate that does tell us what we need to hear about our massive spending -- it's Romney.

Second, what the heck is the White House going to do about porn, for God's sake? Where does the media get this ****. We're drowning in debt, our soldiers are getting slaughtered by the very men they're tasked to train, our embassies are burning down . . . and the media has the time and inclination to make a presidential candidate look ridiculous. Porn filter on all computers sold in the US. :rofl

Swear to God!! I think we've gone nutz.
 
tessaesque said:
So the evidence of Romney's support for porn legislation is a guy who spoke to a guy who advises Romney.....several months ago.
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It's A Conspirasah!!!!
 
MaggieD said:
First of all, if there's any candidate that does tell us what we need to hear about our massive spending -- it's Romney.
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Romney isn't going to cut spending. Any cuts he makes in entitlements are going to be immediately swallowed up by his promise to expand military spending. Romney's not even going to gut entitlements in a way that would make Federal spending manageable. He's said as much already.

Second, what the heck is the White House going to do about porn, for God's sake?
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Why are you asking me about the White House? I support Governor Gary Johnson.

Where does the media get this ****.
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From Mittens' aides, apparently.
 
tessaesque said:
So the evidence of Romney's support for porn legislation is a guy who spoke to a guy who advises Romney.....several months ago.
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"Obama surrounds himself with..."
 
Einzige said:
That's even worse. Romney is a grade-A, unprincipled panderer, and has proven himself absolutely unwilling (or unable) to tell these people what they need to hear.

The hallmark of a statesman is the ability to look his supporters in the face and tell them "no". The only candidate on the ballot I know of who has a proven willingness to do this is Gary Johnson.
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While ethically problematic, getting money from special interest groups is prerequisite for the modern politician. Gary Johnson's moral fiber is unfortunately inversely proportional to the odds of him winning the election. Politicians who accept campaign promises and then don't follow through are the closest we will realistically get to "honest" governance.
 
Maybe we should crackdown on religion and take away their tax exemptions.
 
Einzige said:
I support Governor Gary Johnson.
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Gary Johnson has as much chance winning the presidency as Steve-O from "Jackass." Take that to the bank.

A wasted vote for Johnson is a vote for Obama.



That said...Romney will be as successful in removing porn as Reagan was.
 
Mr. Romney not all of us can afford real prostitutes every night at 5-star hotels. =P

I have but don't often watch porn. I agree it should be less accessible to minors under 18 though.

I don't have have the proof but I hear Republicans spend 3x as much on "catering services" as Dems.
 
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I think Australia has experimented with filters on every computer (or ISP) for porn -- I'm not sure. I imagine something like this might be technologically possible, but I agree with Maggie: this is not a valid priority for a president in the next 4 years.

If Romney (or Obama) were to dedicate substantial law enforcement resources to fighting porn (and I am not including sex crimes, child porn or other violent crimes here), IMO, that'd be a waste.

Why the hell doesn't Romney offer to vigorously investigate and prosecute public corruption? If he told me he was going to get the guys who sat by and let the banking and housing crisises pass, I'd sit up and take notice. Same with Fast and Furious, etc.

I'm not saying I would change my mind about who to vote for -- but Romney has yet to speak to any of my concerns.
 
Verax said:
Maybe we should crackdown on religion and take away their tax exemptions.
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Those religious folks from the south are the ones who watch the most porn.
 
Einzige said:
One normally expects this sort of nanny-statism to come out of the populist, class-war oriented wing of the GOP, i.e. Santorum and Huckabee. It's too bad Romney dipped his toes in this sort of politics. I might have been able to vote for him in 2008.

What more reason do I need to vote for Gary Johnson?

Mitt Romney Aide Promises Crackdown On Porn
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LOL - "Mr Veto Johnson"

Is there anything he'll actually approve - does he bother to read anything he vetoes?
 
Aunt Spiker said:
LOL - "Mr Veto Johnson"

Is there anything he'll actually approve - does he bother to read anything he vetoes?
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At least he vetoes. Bush never vetoed anything when he had a majority in congress. That's why he is the worst president in the history of first world democracies.
 
Einzige said:
The hallmark of a statesman is the ability to look his supporters in the face and tell them "no". .
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For once I agree with you, at least to some degree.


However, that's why politicians and panderers are a dime a dozen, and statesmen are very rare.... and successful statesmen even more rare, as it takes a very special person to tell their constituency flat out "No" and still get elected.
 
You know, I really have a hard time deciding where to stand on this.


On the one hand, I believe in freedom of speech and of expression, and tend to go along with the idea that as long as no one is being harmed or coerced and it is all consenting adults, it is no one else's business.


OTOH, I do feel that porn tends to objectify human beings and feeds an unhealthy obsession with sex... especially with the more extreme sorts of porn, which some people get so hooked on that they lose the ability to be interested in "normal sex". Sometimes I will Google some innocuous term and halfway down the page there are porn videos or images. The 'net is AWASH in the stuff, and porn spam emails try to get you to link to their sites all the time, etc etc. I worry about the kids coming up these days.

When I was young, "porn" was Playboy or Hustler and it was kept behind the counter and you had to ASK for it. Nowadays we're floating in a sea of porn, including some really disgusting and perverted stuff, and it actively tries to come into your home unless you actively safeguard against it. I can't help but feel that is not a good thing.
 
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