There's a new twist to the exposé from the Times about the world of "underage Internet porn." It's disturbing on many levels.
Remember that young man, Justin Berry, who started "working" online from
the age of fourteen? Shortly after he turned the age of majority, he was
contacted by a reporter who said, "Look, I can help you out if
you're willing to cooperate and provide the credit card records of the johns and pimps,
their names, the whole enchilada." The result was a spectacular feature that the Times soaked for months.
I had my own questions about the Camwhore Chronicles. The media often exploits these affairs without illustrating the bigger picture. Child abuse and neglect is a national disgrace, and most of it is NOT happening online with fancy equipment. These scare stories often serve the federal government's schemes to censor/control the Web, rather than protect or empower young people in any meaningful way.
Nevertheless, Justin had a hell of a story. He and his family have incredible documentation of his sex business, down to the last detail. It's a pile of evidence that would make any prosecutor weep for joy.
So are the perps ready to be frogmarched into jail? Apparently not.
After
months of sitting on the evidence, the Justice Department has
done nothing to follow up. They have messed up the indictment so bad, it's eerie.
"'I have never seen a case in my experience move slower than this one,' said the Times' reporter Eichenwald, reflecting on his 20-year career as a crime reporter. 'You ask if this is an active investigation. What more can be done? The better question is, what less could be done?'" Read the whole Salon story for more.
Meantime, two high-ranking government officials in Homeland Security, and one from the Dept. of Defense, have
been busted for either child molestation or active participation in underage Internet porn. (That 14-year-old you think you're seducing? She's a sheriff pushing 30.)
So, is there a connection between:
a) the White House going after Internet "porn" and control of bandwidth and access,
b) Attorney General Gonzalez declaring war on Internet porn,"
c) the Justice Department ignoring the Justin Berry case,
and,
d) Homeland Security's executives being exposed as a bunch of really sick fucks?
I can't be the only one overcome with the nauseating synchronicity. I know I'm a drama queen at my core. But this story is as mind-blowing as it appears.
Take any thread you like: Frank Figueroa, for instance! He was the Chief of Operation Predator-- a Homeland Security force designed to fight pedophiles-- but now he's a convicted offender because he dropped his pants in a Florida mall and masturbated in front of a young lass who quite sensibly called the cops.
You need to breathe in a paper bag to get through this creep-fest.
The next time you hear a member of this administration say anything with the word "C-H-I-L-D" in it, I want them to be CUT OFF their mike, and told that we don't listen to the ravings of shopping-mall-masturbators and chicken hawk psychopaths!
At first I was flabbergasted by the Roman-style grotesqueries of our nation's leaders. But I'm over that now. What I can't get over is how many people seem to settle for it. Numbness and incomprehension is the order of the day.
Everyone knows that the emperor has no clothes, that he and his courtiers are either metaphorically, or literally, plowing our children right into the ground. But it's all just another day at the office. Homeland security bug your phone calls? Your vote laughed at and thrown in a dumpster? Your teenager screwed by someone very special at the Capitol? Close your eyes and maybe it will all just disappear. Pass the pills.
Just the other day we had a story in the Times about how the GOP religious right, (Focus on the Family, etc.) is having serious meetings with Bush Inc., about how pissed and disappointed they are that he hasn't come through for them on banning gay marriage, outlawing abortion, and vanquishing obscenity.
Now, if I had been the one to interview facist-Xtian James Dobson, chair of F.O.F., I would have asked, "Gee, putting faggotry and feminism aside, how do you feel about all the child molestors running this nation's security apparatus?"
Maybe Dobson has an explanation. After all, this is the same guy who wrote in his parenting book, Dare to Discipline:
"Pain is a marvelous purifier. . . a little bit of pain goes a long way for a young child. ...Some strong-willed children absolutely demand to be spanked, and their wishes should be granted... Two or three stinging strokes on the legs or buttocks with a switch are usually sufficient to emphasize the point, 'You must obey me."
What Dobson is really pissed about is that he just spent the past two weeks lobbying Karl Rove, who's on Fitz-thin ice as it is-- a waste of precious lobbyist dollars. Fetch the switch, my boy! Focus on the Family doesn't like to write checks to the wrong man.