A set of uncovered titties on a library computer:
Two uniformed men strolled into the main room of the Little Falls library in Bethesda one day last week and demanded the attention of all patrons using the computers. Then they made their announcement: The viewing of Internet pornography was forbidden.
The men looked stern and wore baseball caps emblazoned with the words “Homeland Security.” The bizarre scene unfolded Feb. 9, leaving some residents confused and forcing county officials to explain how employees assigned to protect county buildings against terrorists came to see it as their job to police the viewing of pornography.
After the two men made their announcement, one of them challenged an Internet user’s choice of viewing material and asked him to step outside, according to a witness. A librarian intervened, and the two men went into the library’s work area to discuss the matter. A police officer arrived. In the end, no one had to step outside except the uniformed men.
I really have no idea what these men were thinking.
capelza
Magic Cubes all over again.
Jim Allen
“They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County’s Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings — but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.”
We used to call these guys “rent-a-cops”. They were a ‘presence’ but not much else. Sometimes they either got an inflated sense of what they were, or got bored and decided to take on more responsibility than they were due.
Lines
They’ve been reassigned and are awaiting their Presidential Medal of Freedom
Jim Allen
They get spiffy hats *and* Medals of Freedom? Too cool!
John
“Uncovered Titties Determined to Attack US”
Speaking just for myself, um, if they want to attack my hometown, I’m welcome our new unclothed globular overlords.
I’m just sayin’, is all.
John
I’m = I’ll. Bah.
StupidityRules
And they said the Saudis couldn’t teach us things…
Paul Wartenberg
Okay, Librarian here. I can tell you we do get the occasional perv on the pooters, and because of 1st amendment issues we don’t actively screen what people are viewing on the computers; however, we do kick people off if they are caught viewing pornography (violations of community standards), and the issue of kicking those porn viewers is normally left up to the library staff, esp. once we get complaints from other patrons (or if other librarians complain in accordance to the sexual harassment guidelines). We never call the police in unless the person overtly breaks the law such as exposing himself, approaching children with that material, or acting violently as a public menace when approached and asked to log off the porn (rarely happens, most porn viewers run for their lives when a librarian starts asking).
To my knowledge, the Homeland Security people are not the ones policing pornography, I don’t see that in their job descriptions. I *thought* the porn police was getting set up with the FBI people, but that’s another issue altogether.
It’s a good thing the librarians there knew their jobs, and knew the limits of the law that these DHS clowns had stepped over. I can’t speak for the DHS dept. concerning how and why they thought they were going to police library computers like that, but I will speak for us librarians: that’s OUR workplace, and that’s OUR job to maintain computers and our patrons’ Internet access, not the police. So there.
LITBMueller
I wish I was at the library that day. I would have jumped right out of my chair, stood stiffly attention, raised my arm in a Nazi salute, and yelled “By your command, Kommandant!!!!”
That would have been fun…
mr.ed
Blessed be the righteous. Damned be the self-righteous.
Marcus Wellby
Ha – I would wager a sizeable chunk of Bush’s base does think internet porn is a threat to homeland security. Not that shit is much better on the other side — not too long ago there was a MAJOR dust-up at Kos over some blog ad for the Gilligan’s Island reality series showing some chick in a – GASP – bikini! The difference I suppose is one group of crazies has a dingbat president to worship as a god, the other side has Cindy Sheehan and Michael Moore.
Marcus Wellby
So YOU were the one downloading porn!!!!
Jim Allen
Do the Mutaween get cool hats?
Do they get upset when people call them “Mutaweenies”?
Jim Allen
Actually the problem at Kos was that the ad showed Michael Moore in a bikini.
I think both sides of the aisle would agree that that was just wrong, on any number of levels.
LITBMueller
Sorry, Marcus….I didn’t realize until now that it was VERBOTEN!!!!!! :)
Seriously, though, I’m so glad some librarian had the courage to stand up to these goons. We all need to be willing to do that when some overzealous Storm Trooper starts trying to violate the Constitution.
StupidityRules
Alberto Gonzales top priority isn’t fighting terrorism, it’s fighting obscenity between consenting adults. So I’m really not that suprised about this. Cause we all know that one child being correpted by some naked boobies are way worse than a 200 dead in a terrorist attack.
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1125318960389
Pb
Did I miss a memo or something? When did John Ashcroft replace Chertoff…
Laura
I’m not surprised. Librarians are staunch defenders of intellectual freedom and civil liberties.
Richard Bottoms
>I really have no idea what these men were thinking.
I bet if you check back in November the local Republican will be accusing their Democratic opponent of siding with child porn producers.
Damn those overreaching Dems.
BTW, guess who is in the top positions when it comes to distributing x-rated videos? I’ll you a hint, think large hotel chains and in-roon viewing.
neil
I really have no idea what these men were thinking.
I know! Don’t they realize that looking at Internet pornography only helps the terrorists? Is there any way that we can get torture used in these cases? These people are destroying the moral fiber of our nation!
Blue Neponset
On a more or less related note: Do we really need the Dept of Homeland Security to be protecting the pulblic library in Bethesda, MD? Can’t the local cops handle that difficult task?
This is from the same article John linked to:
Why don’t the “small government/local government is better” Republicans in Congress just give Montgomery County 2.0 million to hire some new cops to patrol those 300 buildings? Do we need another level of bureaucracy to protect the good people of MD?
DougJ
I do — they were thinking that this country has turned into a police state under George Bush.
But, hey, Dean screamed and John Kerry looked funny wind-surfing, so thank God they’re not in the White House, so you were right to vote for Bush.
Marcus Wellby
Damn straight DougJ — I mean if Kerry was president he would do something crazy like turn over port security to countries with known terrorist ties!
Sean
My first reaction was “That’s what you get for voteing Republican these days”. Then I read the article and realized this was in my county. We don’t vote republican. Last republican seen around these parts was Connie Morella. The state of course gerrymandered her out of Congress.
Our county council is all democrats our county administrator is a democrat. Where the hell did these guys get the idea to police porn at a library. Maybe the dems are trying to suck up to the religious right; What a nightmare that would be.
mark
But daddy Bush will keep us safe from the mean nasty terrorists and liberals. Right Emily??
Anyone with 2 working brain cells knew this cabal didn’t give a rats ass about terrorism. All they care about is power, their power, and cementing that power for a long time to come.
“Oh, mercy me, the democrats would be much worse cause they have no manners”
This is what you’ve voted for so stop your complaining. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. You’re a tool.
John Cole
DougJ- I am not in the mood for your shit today.
First, I can not wait until your candidate is President, so I can blame the lowest actions of the lowest federal employee on who you voted for President.
Second, I still believe John Kerry would have been a terrible President. I would love to have voted for someone other than Bush, but Kerry was not the man.
rachel
Well, that’s your problem right there. Your county is obviously a hotbed of weak-kneed liberals just itching to surrender to al Qaeda. Of course you have to be monitored mor carefully than upright, conservative, Rebublican-voting places like Utah.
neil
This wasn’t even federal employees, was it? Probably federally funded, but whatever.
First, I can not wait until your candidate is President, so I can blame the lowest actions of the lowest federal employee on who you voted for President.
Me either, I am really looking forward to this game of pretending that the head of the government doesn’t affect policies all the way down. You guys make it look like a lot of fun.
neil
I mean, George Bush comes into office riding a wave of theocons, immediately shifts the policies of the DoJ towards combating porn, creates massive new funding for law enforcement, and then that new law enforcement starts cracking down on porn too. What’s a guy to think? Best to be like Instapundit, throw your hands up and explain that the government is far too complex to know anything for sure.
John Cole
You are on, then, Neil. First up, explain to me how Bush is responsible for the behavior ofthese two county employees. Have fun. And please don’t give me any ‘Bush has created a climate of…’ bullshit.
Krista
Jesus man, what is wrong with you? Don’t stick images like that in peoples’ heads…
Faux News
You are on, then, Nei
Faux News
Chew on this John.
John Cole
Faux:
Learn how to embed your damn links. I am tired of fixing them for you.
Second, in cases in which a Bush policy (or Ashcroft policy) actually led to this, I would say nothing. Well, that is not true, I would probably bash Bush or Ashcraft.
But in this case, the behavior of the two nutters does not flow from a Bush policy, so blaming it on Bush is stupid.
Jim Allen
What’s the matter, John — you not getting enough fiber?
You posted something under “General Stupidity”, and you’re getting no argument that it was categorized incorrectly. It’s truly dumb, and it’s Friday, and we’re all having some fun with it, even to the point of parodying ourselves.
Christ, man, lighten up! Just because you’re paranoid, doesn’t mean we’re always out to get you!
:)
John Cole
I am cranky today.
neil
The Montgomery County DHS receives federal grants. Based on that article plus quick googling, it seems about half their money comes from the federal government. It should come as no surprise to anyone that with federal money come federal responsibilities. Training programs and audits, at the very least, are part of the grant.
The federal DHS, as we all know, is a new agency. It was created by Congress working together with Bush. As a federal agency, it is under Bush’s purview — all decisions are made by political appointees and people hired under them. It is a new agency, so there are no established bureaucrats or procedures. So these training programs and audits, too, are pretty much entirely a product of the Bush administration; and if they were created under another president than Bush, they would have been different.
The Montgomery Country DHS failed at training its officers not to pull stunts like this. The federal DHS failed at compelling the county DHS to train them. Obviously they consider this their responsibility, so I don’t think it’s unfair to point out that they shoulder some of the burden. Would a Democratic president have created a federal DHS whose training programs did a better job at laying out the priorities and limitations of their grant recipients? I really think it would certainly not be far-fetched to think he might.
I’m sorry if this little Government 101 class insults anyone’s intelligence, but it seems to be sorely needed.
John Lodge
Don’t blame Bush or Republicans. These were Montgomery County DHS employees. Montgomery County,MD is perhaps the blue-est county in a very blue state. Dollars to donuts these county employees were registered Dems.
Jim Allen
neil, that’s all well and good, and I’m just as happy to blame everything from global warming to crabgrass on GWB, but in this case I think that what I said up top is more to the heart of it. These are low-level rent-a-cops who took on more responsibility than they would have otherwise been accorded.
Think Barney Fife, rather than anything more sinister. Hell, even ol’ Barney was armed, even if the bullet was kept in his shirt pocket.
neil
Now that I’m out of the yoke, I can also see how bad decisions would create a _climate_ of conservative social policy enforcement in county-level departments, but I certainly have no evidence of that. Making the President or his AG happy would be a pretty odd component of any certification process. But cronies will be cronies, after all.
But the main reason the federal government is complicit is because they are paying these guys’ salaries. It is really not complicated.
neil
I am so sick and tired of the ‘few bad apples’ excuse. The federal government is paying the salary of these apples, and it spends a lot of money on training and certification to make sure they are not bad. So the fact that there are bad apples is, in and of itself, evidence that the federal government has failed. Even if it was an excusable accident, it’s still a failure. (Oh man, I just had to tie it in to Dick Cheney shooting an old man in the face, didn’t I?)
Blue Neponset
You are correct they were not Federal employees. I stand corrected.
DougJ
Maybe next time you go on diet, you could cut out the Kool-Aid instead of the wine.
If you really believe that Kerry would have worse than Bush, than I’ve given you too much credit these past few months. I don’t think you really believe it.
Krista
John: why don’t you celebrate your 20 lb weight loss by buying yourself something nice? (Non-food, of course).
Go get a massage (highly recommended), or get yourself a book you’ve been wanting, or some other form of self-indulgence. You’ll feel better…honest.
Lines
I’m about to splurge and buy Krista a one way ticket here :) I know that will make me feel better!
DougJ
All right, John, I see now that you’re having a bad time of it today. I’ll lay off.
Good luck with the dieting, etc.
Krista’s advice is good.
Mr Furious
Who cares about the cop part of the story, did you guys click through and read this?
Does anyone else find that completely surprising? It sounds like the librbaries in the area are basically responsible for setting up peep shows. I’m, frankly, shocked by this portion of the story, not the stupid cops…
The Other Steve
It’s pretty obvious now that you were wrong.
DougJ
I’d say it’s a little worse than that: terrorists could use the library’s terminals to communicate with one another. And the worst part is, now that the media has reported on it, terrorists know that they can do that. This leak of library protocol endangers our national security.
D. Mason
Am I the only one that finds it absolutely sad that people go to the library to look at porn? Don’t get me wrong, I’m not exscusing the actions of rosco and cletus. Homeland security agents have no business weighing in on such matters. That being said … Who thinks the library is a good place to look at porn?
Bob In Pacifica
Wilhelm Reich’s sex-economy in action. Homeland Security says pornography is bad. That’s what they said in Fatherland Security.
From a Hitler edict regarding the education of youth: “Loyalty and responsibility toward the people and the fatherland are most deeply anchored in Christian faith. For this reason it will always be my special duty to safeguard the right and free development of the Christian school and the Christian fundamentals of all education.”
Whoops, there was an edict here about not comparing Nazis and Republicans. So sorry.
Lines
D. Mason: Thats exactly the line of thinking that turns you into a Republican, now stop it.
It doesn’t matter why people are looking at porn, its not up to you, its not up to me. If the library has no strict rules against it, trying to determine a “why” will tend to just make you disgusted by some of the answers and seek to right what appears to be a wrong.
Just stay out of it, its none of your business.
Krista
Now making porn, on the other hand..
Bob In Pacifica
“According to this [Nazi authoritarian] view, to have sex for the pleasure of it degrades the woman and mother; a “prostitute” is a woman who affirms pleasure and lives for it. The notion that sexuality is moral only in the service of procreation is immoral, is the most important feature of reactionary sexual politics… Agressive imperialism dictates that women be nothing but child-bearing machines and it brooks no rebellion against this function. In short, this means that sexual gratification must not interfere with her function of reproduction.” -Wilhem Reich, The Sex-Economic Presuppositions in THE MASS PSYCHOLOGY OF FASCISM.
Pooh
Some of my best, er, work has been done in public libraries. Wait that sounds bad…
Nevermind, nothing to see here.
LITBMueller
Homeland Security(tm): Protecting Us All From Terrorists With Hardons!
Krista
And this thread has hit a new low…
Al Maviva
Okay, for you commenters with functional hands but non-working eyes, the article said pretty clearly it was the Montgomery County Homeland Security people. That’s Montgomery County as in Maryland. It’s not Bush’s fault. It’s not the U.S. Department of Homeland Security behind this. Trust me, if it was, it wouldn’t be in the Metro section of today’s Post, it would be front page news if this could be even remotely pinned on Bush.
Second point, Montgomery County is far and away the most liberal chunk of Maryland, which is by and large a very liberal state. The County Council is 8-1 Dems. The County Executive – the guy who runs the County, Doug Duncan – is running for Governor on the Democratic ticket. Bethesda and Chevy Chase and Silver Spring are in Montgomery County. Chris van Hollen, a very liberal Dem, is Montgomery County’s Member of Congress.
Please. I can accept that anybody who doesn’t hew to the Dems’ party line is a scumsucking jerk in your eyes, dumber than rocks, ignant, whatever – myself included. But isn’t there enough real stuff to blame on the Republicans and Bush, without blaming something that is a Dem enterprise, from top to bottom? Could you at least read the frickin article before you use it to bludgeon the Republicans?
And if it seems out of character for Dems, no, well, I’m not sure it is. Along with banning smoking in public places (restaurants, bars, shos, etc) Montgomery County attempted to ban smoking in apartment complexes a couple years ago too. It has a very, very bad case of nanny syndrome.
EL
Yeah, and even worse, libraries are responsible for introducing thousands of people to terribly-written books. Much worse, IMHO. But then, no accounting for taste – unless you were planning on making librarians the taste police?
Jim Allen
OK, Al, time for you to hit the All-Bran, too.
Nikki
Naw, that would be us Prince George Countyites. You know, the blackest county in the state of Maryland?
Jim Allen
How long have you been in PG, Nikki? I graduated from Central High in ’71, myself.
Paul Wartenberg
You’re confusing the Homeland Security, a FEDERAL LEVEL institution, with the local police, who would answer to your Democratic-controlled county commission.
The issue here is that the FEDERAL LEVEL Homeland Security people were at a local county-level public library trying to police pornography, something that by all accounts does not fit into their mission agenda. There was no evidence from that news report that the county commission or local government requested the Homeland Security dept. investigate porn usage at the library, so do not go blaming the local gov’t for a FEDERAL LEVEL GOVERNMENT from overstepping their authority and threatening everyone’s civil liberties.
Jim Allen
Not true, Paul:
“They were officers of the security division of Montgomery County’s Homeland Security Department, an unarmed force that patrols about 300 county buildings — but is not responsible for enforcing obscenity laws.”
Paul Wartenberg
Dammit, that’s not our fault. YOU people keep checking out Danielle Steel and John Grisham by the truckloads. If you all started reading more appropriate, aesthetically pleasing works like “Last of the Grapefruit Wars” we’d all be better off!
Paul Wartenberg
Wait, why would a county have its own Homeland Security dept? They’ve got the police and traffic control… Why do I get the feeling the whole Homeland Security deal is yet another massive underplanned boondoggle of epic proporti… oh, right, we already learned that…
Jim Allen
Charity begins at Homeland, Paul.
:)
Krista
Bite your tongue, Paul. I happily read trashy novels, but there are certain depths that I will not plumb.
Besides, in this day and age shouldn’t we be happy that people are actually reading?
Jim Allen
Yes, Krista — as long as they don’t have to do algebra.
Al Maviva
Okay, Nikki, point granted. I suppose a fair and balanced assessment is that PG kicks butt in the blue collar liberal division, while Montgomery dominates the limousine liberal division. They are both very liberal counties though.
Hey, I do have one question about the liberal creds of PG County. For a liberal county… what’s up with that police force y’all got? Did yours and Fairfax’s PD somehow get switched at birth? ‘Cuz Fairfax is all about touchy-feely and community outreach, and PG’s cops are just hard.
Sean
I’d like to defend my Montgomery County. We are not the bluest county in a blue state. Connie Morella used to be our Congressman. She is a Republican. She would still be our Congressman had the state not shaved off parts of upcounty (rural) and carved a bit of Prince Georges County and placed it in our district. That bit of PG county was Tacomma Park which has officially declared itself as a “Nuclear Free Zone” and has been called the Berkeley of the East.
The reason MC is still competitive for non-religious-right conservatives is because it is full of seriously rich people. Poor to Middle Class folk are being priced out of the county. People who have a reason to care about the Capital Gains Tax are accendent here.
Jim Allen
It’s “Takoma Park”, Sean. And don’t laugh at the Nuclear Free Zone, now — there hasn’t been a single case of radiation poisoning there since it was declared.
There was that one unfortunate incident when a University of Maryland sophomore ODed on patchouli, but that was back in ’72, and I understand she was able to recover most of the feeling in her legs after intensive therapy.
Al Maviva
I’m a lawyer, not a doctor, Jim. But I think the numbness was probably due to the weight of excessive leg hair cutting off circulation. This is Takoma Park we’re talking about.
skip
Book burning is right around the corner.
Like Ari Fleischer once said: “watch what you say, and watch what you do.”
I confess I am still FUMING about that one.
moonbiter
It’s helpful to remember that people in authority, no matter their political stripe, are not looking out for your best interests. At best what they think is right is also good for you — but never, ever, be fooled into thinking that they actually care about you or your rights. Because they don’t.