CHATSWORTH, Calif. - In a development that surprised even himself, obscenity charges against producer Rob Black of Extreme Associates have been thrown out of court by a federal judge in Pittsburgh.

“I’m still speechless,” Black told AVN.com. “All ten counts against us were dismissed.” He said that Judge Lancaster had also ruled that obscenity laws are unconstitutional.

“I now have made fucking history,” said the jubilant Black.

“It makes everything perfect,” he added. “The business has been going great and all of a sudden my lawyer calls up and said I won.”

Black’s lawyer, Lou Sirkin, was not immediately available for comment.

Black said he’d been told that federal prosecutor Mary Beth Buchanan told a wire service reporter that she was disappointed and that she felt the government had a slam dunk case and that any jury would have convicted.

“This is the greatest news I’ve ever had,” Black said.

Uh oh...another one of those activist judges :)

lol

Well. I won THAT bet!

Yes, Bush is still scaring me.

However -

The chairman of the FCC resigned today. That is good news.

And Bush said the other day that he is not going to go for the constitutional amendment on gay marriage. Politically it is too difficult to do was his connotation.

So, I feel a little better.

Bush said what he had to say and did what he had to do to get re-elected...
now things can go back to gridlock

I'm also glad Powell is stepping down

I really don't want Bush to fail...but for fuck's sake, he still makes me nervous...

That's assuming the Supreme Court doesn't overturn the Defense of Marriage Act.

If they do ... its on

Why ? To distance himself or do you think hes bad news?

Whats the general consensus re Powell in the US ?

He seems to be well respected .

Why ? To distance himself or do you think hes bad news?

Whats the general consensus re Powell in the US ?

He seems to be well respected . [/b][/quote]
These are from the end of 2004.

Harris Poll. "How do you rate the job Secretary of State Colin Powell is doing: excellent, pretty good, only fair, or poor?"

11/9-14/04 Excellent/pretty good 66 Only fair/poor 32

WSJ

"Now I'm going to read you the names of several public figures and organizations, and I'd like you to rate your feelings toward each one as either very positive, somewhat positive, neutral, somewhat negative, or very negative. If you don't know the name, please just say so. Colin Powell.


Very positive 40%
Somewhat positive 30%
Neutral 15%
Somewhat negative 7%
Very negative 3%
Don't know 4%

I could be wrong, but I think Lance is talking about Michael Powell stepping down from the FCC.

Why ? To distance himself or do you think hes bad news?

Whats the general consensus re Powell in the US ?

He seems to be well respected . [/b][/quote]
he's caused a lot of problems with outrageous fines and has worked to allow corporations to own even more television stations, newspapers, etc. (this is a huge problem because imagine living in a city where 1 or 2 corporations owned every media outlet in the area...then only that point of view would get shown and anything negative about those corporations would disappear)

Yes, Michael Powell, not Colin Powell

he's caused a lot of problems with outrageous fines and has worked to allow corporations to own even more television stations, newspapers, etc. (this is a huge problem because imagine living in a city where 1 or 2 corporations owned every media outlet in the area...then only that point of view would get shown and anything negative about those corporations would disappear) [/b][/quote]
Seems I was right. Could someone mark this down somewhere? It's so very rare :)

Yes, Michael Powell, not Colin Powell [/b][/quote]
ahhh.

Seems I was right. Could someone mark this down somewhere? It's so very rare :) [/b][/quote]
http://www.oprano.com/msgboard/index.php?s...=0&#entry196538

ahhh. [/b][/quote]
Ditto !

:)

Why ??
.. I dont have an opinion one way or the other


Mixed legacy for FCC's Powell
http://news.com.com/Mixed+legacy+for+FCCs+...html?tag=st.num

Why ? To distance himself or do you think hes bad news?

Whats the general consensus re Powell in the US ?

He seems to be well respected . [/b][/quote]
hes of no consequence anymore.

i really need to start reading the whole thread

Guarantee you that judge is gonna be targeted by conservative activists. The dismissal will be attacked on the basis that the USSC has already ruled that obscenity is a proper restriction of free speech even though it has never been defined other than the nebulous "community standards" standard they cited. That judge is begging to be rebuked by a higher court for this ruling.

Federal Judges have life time appointments. It's nearly impossible to impeach a judge unless something criminal has happened.

Good to see some people finally waking up....

The sky is not falling.

Federal Judges have life time appointments. It's nearly impossible to impeach a judge unless something criminal has happened.

Good to see some people finally waking up....

The sky is not falling. [/b][/quote]
They got lucky that they got a judge who sided with them...
had it been a more conservative judge, they'd be fucked and set an ugly precedent...instead, hopefully this will set a different precedent, one that is more favorable to our industry...

sorry, Mike, I know you're retired, so by saying "our" it doesn't necessarily include you ;-))

They got lucky that they got a judge who sided with them...
had it been a more conservative judge, they'd be fucked and set an ugly precedent...instead, hopefully this will set a different precedent, one that is more favorable to our industry...

sorry, Mike, I know you're retired, so by saying "our" it doesn't necessarily include you ;-)) [/b][/quote]
There are so many checks and balances on such things that it is always less likely that the sky is falling than that it actually is. Were we just lucky today, lucky on CDA and lucky on CDA II or rather were we the beneficiaries of a system acting just as it should?

A few weeks ago people were saying that Ashcroft would have gone more after porn if he wasn't so busy with terrorism. That's quite a speculative statement.

Now such a case gets thrown out of court.

This is the system at work.

Quite a decent outcome on both counts. Now that assscroft is leaving maybe now all the chicken littles will go back to their soaps.

so, the chicken littles were justified when he was in office, but not so now that he's out?

so, the chicken littles were justified when he was in office, but not so now that he's out? [/b][/quote]
No, I don't think they were justified in either case. If he was going to do something, he would have done it. Rampant speculation acheived nothing aside from much gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair.

This would seem to be a good thing indeed.

:blink:

Gnashing of teeth and pulling of hair has kept me alive and out of jail so far...... :okthumb:

I personally think Black should have been thrown in jail.

Not me. I'd like the boundary as far from me as possible.

Federal Judges have life time appointments. It's nearly impossible to impeach a judge unless something criminal has happened.

Good to see some people finally waking up....

The sky is not falling. [/b][/quote]
Oh, he'll keep his job.... but he'll get whacked upside the head by a higher court ythat will basically say he is an idiot. Conservative activits will try and make his life hell as well.

Well, yes and no. It's good in the sense that people will be able to use it in the future. Bad in the sense that I have ZERO doubt that the part about obscenity being unconstitutional will be overturned and I can't think of too many other things that could spur conservative activits and the new AG, who has promised a crackdown on porn, to push this as fast as they can to be overturned and use it as a rallying point to try and ensure that a ruling that squeezes the industry by the balls comes about.

I'm not exactly sure what his content is like but I'm generally not in favor of restrictions of free speech.

ah, the "my porn is holier than your porn" thing?