Last month the FBI began recruiting a new anti-obscenity squad. Described by a memo from FBI headquarters as a “top priority” for Attorney General Alberto Gonzales and FBI director Robert Mueller, it has been reported that the new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography – and we’re not talking about child pornography, just your good ol’ fashion consenting-adult kind.

This new unit of “porn police” has become the running joke among agents in the bureau, according to The Washington Post.

“I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,” said one agent who wished to remain anonymous. “We must not need any more resources for espionage.”

He makes a good point. Has the Bush administration eliminated the threat against terrorism in the U.S.? Is protecting Americans from pornography a high enough priority to pull resources from more imminent threats? Have our ports, trains and borders been secured? Have sufficient translators been recruited? Have we found all the weapons of mass destruction? Unless Osama Bin Laden is the mastermind behind the American porn industry, not one dollar should be spent hunting down and prosecuting an industry protected by the First Amendment.

Just what sort of impact does this new division expect to have on the multi-billion dollar porn industry? According to the memo, the best odds of conviction in federal obscenity prosecutions come from pornography that “includes bestiality, urination, defecation, as well as sadistic and masochistic behavior.” OK, so bestiality does rank high on the “eew scale,” but does it call for its own “CSI” spin-off?

Hard-core porn is becoming more mainstream and accepted in today’s society. Many upscale hotels and cable and satellite companies carry a wide selection, with porn stars achieving near-celebrity status. The Post reported that explicit sexual entertainment is a profit center for companies that include General Motors Corp. and Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp. (the two major owners of DirecTV), Time Warner, and the Sheraton, Hilton, Marriott and Hyatt hotel chains. This obvious bone thrown to Christian conservatives demonstrates just how out of step this administration is with the rest of America.

Gonzales has adopted the rationale that pornography is a threat to families and children. Porn isn’t threatening our families and children; terrorism, guns, drugs, crime – these things threaten our families.

Bush and the attorney general need to get real and quit pandering to the religious right. These supposed “Christian values” are leaking from the top down into every nook and cranny of American society. Bush has no business telling us that our porn ain’t Christian-like. When even those working within the FBI are chuckling at the preposterousness of such a crime unit, you have to wonder just where our priorities are.

Keep in mind that this is the same administration that will nominate replacements for Supreme Court Chief Justice William Rehnquist and Justice Sandra Day O’Connor.

Long after Bush leaves office, his judicial appointees will continue to impact issues concerning our basic fundamental rights as human beings, stamping his ultra-conservative legacy onto future generations.

The Bush administration has already openly attacked GLBT rights with its anti-gay agenda, proposing the Federal Marriage Amendment, fighting to uphold “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” advocating against GLBT content in sex education curriculum and on public television, and cutting funding for GLBT and HIV/AIDS organizations – and now they’re after porn. Is nothing sacred?

And it’s not even so much that they’re after porn – they’re really after our First Amendment rights. Hopefully America will fight back as Bush and his posse of Christian radicals attempt to exorcise us from our constitutionally-guaranteed “sins.”