By Andrew Gumbel in Los Angeles
24 May 2004
The interests of the morality-toting Bush administration are not exactly
in harmony with those of the United States' 4,000-odd strip clubs. And
now the clubs are doing something about it, by registering their patrons
to vote in between floor shows and agitating openly to boot the
President out of the White House in November.
Voter registration forms are being distributed in clubs in at least
three states - Ohio, Wisconsin and North Carolina - and the political
rhetoric, from an industry usually noted for its deep reluctance to
stick its head above any parapet, is growing ever more vehement.
"We must do everything within our power to help ensure that Bush and his
ultra-conservative administration are removed from the White House,''
the president of the industry's Association of Club Executives, Michael
Ocello, wrote in a recent letter to his members.
"If we are to survive, we must act now.'' In Ohio, where the
association's chapter president describes the Bible-thumping Attorney
General, John Ashcroft, as "the American Taliban", 2,000 new voters have
been registered in the past few weeks.
In southern Wisconsin, club owner Jim Halbach has begun canvassing
clients and dancers, arguing that if President Bush wins a second term
it could be the end for all of them.
"I'm actually fighting for my survival,'' he said. "That's the way I
look at it." The odd thing is that the administration, while making no
secret of its disapproval, has launched no specific crackdown against
strip clubs.
True, pornography was one of the items on Mr Ashcroft's priority list
when he came into office in 2001 - a list also notable for its omission
of counter- terrorism. His Justice Department has spent millions of
dollars pursuing obscenity cases in the broader sex industry.
The Federal Communications Commission has also tightened up its
definitions of indecency on the mainstream airwaves, following Janet
Jackson's infamous prime-time breast-bearing at January's Superbowl, the
climax of the American football season.
For now, the strip clubs have had to endure morality initiatives only at
a lower level of government - an anti-lap dancing ordinance passed by
the city council in Las Vegas, for example, and attempts at similar
legislation in Los Angeles. There are, however, intimations of deeper
trouble on the horizon.
One club owner, Michael Galardi, has been under federal investigation
for corruption of politicians in Las Vegas and San Diego - an inquiry
that has relied, in part, on provisions of the anti-terrorist 2001
Patriot Act, written by Mr Ashcroft's Justice Department.
It may well be that the strip-club owners see a troubling change in the
equilibrium whereby the politicians were prepared to turn a blind eye as
long as the money generated by the industry benefited everyone.
Naturally, that is not how their political campaign is being sold.
Industry advocates have instead raised red flags about Christian
fundamentalism and what they see as their right to free _expression_. "At
what point," asked Angelina Spencer, ACE's executive director, "is the
country run under the New Testament or under the Constitution?"
----------------
I wonder though if Kerry is going to be much better. There's just
something about him that strikes me a extremely similar to Bush,
Rumsfeld and Ashcroft.
-Gel
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