It’d be funny if it weren’t true:

Early last month, the bureau’s Washington Field Office began recruiting for a new anti-obscenity squad. Attached to the job posting was a July 29 Electronic Communication from FBI headquarters to all 56 field offices, describing the initiative as “one of the top priorities” of Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales and, by extension, of “the Director.” That would be FBI Director Robert S. Mueller III.

The new squad will divert eight agents, a supervisor and assorted support staff to gather evidence against “manufacturers and purveyors” of pornography — not the kind exploiting children, but the kind that depicts, and is marketed to, consenting adults.

Yup, the porn police. But that’s not all. The Agitator found something extremely disturbing:

FBI officials [said] during last month’s meeting that obscenity prosecution would have to be handled by the crimes against children unit. But that unit is already overworked and would have to take agents off cases of child endangerment to work on adult porn cases. Acosta replied that this was Attorney General Gonzales’ mandate.

The original article he links to was found at LawGeek, showing that this was known about since August; The Washington Post and I just caught it late. Now of course everyone’s writing about it, but late recognition is better than no recognition.

It’s beyond despicable. These people who tout free market economies are simultaneously finding weak justifications to stifle segments of it they find personally objectionable. I’ll be among the first to agree with them that porn involving beastiality and defecation is sickening, but how it deserves prosecution the same way dumping toxic waste should be (but often isn’t) prosecuted is beyond me. I’m sure we can all think of regulation that deserves higher priority enforcement. And if you’re looking for something a thousand times more vomit-inducing than urination fetish videos, try the reallocation of resources that fight child porn to fight adult porn.

If civil liberties, a fairly fettered economy (I believe in free market economies that don’t hurt people), and protecting children from sexual predators isn’t enough for ya (aha, the hurting), there’s always the old standby of George W. Bush hypocrisy. The Desert Rat Democrat has a graphically expressive reminder that a porn star attended a recent fund-raising dinner and lots of info on Republicans who have accepted money from porn profiteers. Hammer of Truth shows us just how evil the porn industry is. I’m sure many Katrina victims will object to receiving aid paid for by Girls Gone Wild.

My hope is that agents assigned to this task will conveniently find themselves deluged in their work on other cases. That might not be too hard to pull off:

“I guess this means we’ve won the war on terror,” said one exasperated FBI agent, speaking on the condition of anonymity because poking fun at headquarters is not regarded as career-enhancing. “We must not need any more resources for espionage.”

Among friends and trusted colleagues, an experienced national security analyst said, “it’s a running joke for us.”

A few of the printable samples:

“Things I Don’t Want On My Resume, Volume Four.”

“I already gave at home.”

“Honestly, most of the guys would have to recuse themselves.”