President George W. Bush has not exactly been a hero to civil libertarians, what with the data mining, wiretapping and library snooping. But he may just have redeemed himself. Thanks in part to the efforts of Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney, it is now safe for Nicole Richie to drop the F bomb on broadcast TV. Related How Bush Became the Curser in Chief<http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1630538,00.html>
A court strikes down FCC fines, citing Administration vulgarities. Thank you, President Pottymouth! On June 4, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of broadcasters in a challenge against Federal Communications Commission sanctions for indecent and profane language. Among the penalized quotes was Richie's discussing her Simple Life experience on a live Fox awards show in 2003: "Have you ever tried to get cow s___ out of a Prada purse? It's not so f___ing simple." The court argued, among other things, that the FCC's enforcement was "arbitrary and capricious." But the reason that stood out most was the court's assessment of the national indecency climate: "In recent times, even the top leaders of our government have used variants of these expletives in a manner that no reasonable person would believe referenced 'sexual or excretory organs or activities'"--the definition of indecency that the FCC and the courts have used. The decision cited Bush's remark to British Prime Minister Tony Blair last summer, in front of a live mike, that Syria needed to "get Hizballah to stop doing this s___," as well as Cheney's hearty invitation to Senator Patrick Leahy, "Go f___ yourself." (The court could have cited Bush's remark, later reported by TIME, from March 2002 when war in Iraq was allegedly still a last resort: "F___ Saddam. We're taking him out.") -- Ross Bender http://rossbender.org/mqrtoc.html
