March 11, 2009
Personal note:
The letter (below) from Patrick Trueman, former head of the Child Exploitation
and Obscenity Enforcement Section at Justice in DC, delineates the concerns
those of us within the pro-family movement have today regarding the vote on
pornography attnorney David Ogden to be the second in command at the Justice
Department.
I made my calls to Michigan Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin. Yes.
They are both liberals. I made the phone calls anyway. Before Christ and my
supporters and family, I wanted to have a clean conscience knowing that I
DID WHAT I COULD. If this man gets voted in, it WILL have long term negative
consequences!
Now I must pray and leave it in the hands of God who ultimately is in control
of everything. Nothing surprises Him. Yet, I am to be faithful to what I know
is right. I made the calls.
I urge you to do the same.
Here's a letter from Pat Trueman:
Dear Friends,
It looks like the vote in the full U.S. Senate for pornography attorney
David Ogden is going to be [today, Wednesday]. Ogden has been nominated by
President Obama to be Deputy Attorney General – the man who will run
the U.S. Department of Justice. The deputy is considered the CEO
of the Department. Shocking as it may seem, Ogden looks like a shoe-in at
this point. The vote may even be overwhelming in his favor.
Let’s recall why this nomination has riled the public throughout America.
Ogden has not just represented major pornographers in prominent cases; he
has been a leader in an effort to get courts to proclaim greater protections
for pornography and pornographers. He VOLUNTEERED to represent plaintiff’s
challenging the Children’s Internet Protection Act, which was designed
to protect children by keeping pornography from school and public library
computers. He insisted that the Congress, which voted overwhelmingly in favor
of the act, was acting unconstitutionally in passing CIPA. Children should
not be exposed to pornography in schools and libraries. Yet, David Ogden believes
the Constitution requires it.
Ogden filed a brief before the U.S. Supreme Court in the notable child pornography
case, U.S. v. Knox. In the disgusting films involved in Knox, children were
posed so that the focus of the camera was on their genital areas though they
were not completely naked. The films were a pedophile’s dream. Ogden
argued that such material is protected by the U.S. Constitution and that Knox
should be acquitted. Fortunately, the Supreme Court disagreed and the conviction
of Knox stood.
There are other issues that Ogden has prominently championed such as abortion
and homosexuality. I wanted to highlight his outrageous positions on pornography
not only because that is the issue on which I have concentrated my efforts
over the past 22 years but because David Ogden too has spent much of his time
concentrating on the same issue during that time. He even sued the Department
of Justice in a key pornography-related case when I was the chief of the Child
Exploitation and Obscenity Section at the Department of Justice.
I don’t think that President Obama is putting Ogden at the top of the
Justice Department to help pornographers. I think he just doesn’t care.
One would think that Ogden’s past work would eliminate him from consideration.
After all, the overwhelming majority of the public must still oppose child
pornography and want children protected from pornography in public libraries.
But it seems that our President just doesn’t care what people think
as long as his core group of left-leaning supporters – and that includes
more than half the U.S. Senate – support him.
The President, I fear, has a radical agenda and can count on Ogden to carry
it out at the Department of Justice. Make no mistake about it, pornographers
will be beneficiaries. Ogden has not been shy about pursuing a radical agenda
in the law for decades and his radicalism will be rewarded and ratified tomorrow
as the Senate votes to approve him.
I hope you will call your two U.S. Senators, 202-225-3121, to express your
thoughts on Ogden before today’s vote. But, more than that, I hope you
will remember how your senators vote on Ogden in the next election. Your senator
is very familiar with David Ogden’s body of legal work. Tens of thousands
of phone calls by you and others like you over the past few weeks have made
sure of this. Yet, tomorrow a large majority of the Senate will embrace David
Ogden. The message that I take away from this is that we cannot count on the
federal government to do anything significant against pornography, at least
for the next four years. The battle against pornography is ours to fight.
In that light, I want to again call to your attention a promising development.
Late last year, the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton University held a conference
on the harm from pornography. I attended and came away greatly encouraged
that knowledge of the harm from pornography is beginning to be spread. The
Witherspoon Institute has begun a very promising conversation with the public
on pornography’s harm. Look for much more from the Institute. Here is
a link to the papers presented at the conference: http://www.winst.org/family_marriage_and_democracy/social_costs_of_pornography/consultation2008.php.
Sincerely,
Patrick A. Trueman
Attorney At Law
10350 Southam Lane
Oakton, VA 22124
703-938-1776
703-303-4777 (cell)
703-938-1770 (fax)
http://www.PatTrueman.org
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American Decency Association
Bill Johnson, President
P.O. Box 202
Fremont, MI 49412
ph: 231-924-4050
http://www.americandecency.org
