Kerry Holds Press Conference: New Legislation on Child Pornography

[kerrygoddess]

John Kerry Holds Press Conference in Boston on New Legislation to Increase Penalties for Downloading Child Pornography
January 6th, 2006

John Kerry held a press conference in Boston today to speak about his recently introduced legislation that would increase penalties for anyone who downloads child pornography off the Internet. ‘Masha’s Law’ is named for Masha Allen, who was adopted from a Russian orphanage at age 5 by an American man who began sexually abusing her and posted hundreds of pornographic images of her on the Internet.

Kerry is seen here hugging 13-year-old abuse survivor Masha Allen…



MORE - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1568

[baby_mouse]

1. ?

Well, that's good.

Um, there are *other* issues however...

[MsKandice01]

I agree n/t

[MsKandice01]

2. I agree n/t

[blm]

5. He's not choosing this issue OVER others - it's in ADDITION TO all the

others that he works on.

DSM letter, Iraq withdrawal plan, Katrina Small Business Relief legislation, Election Reform bill, ANWR, and many others.

You really prefer someone NOT concern themselves with the issue?

[baby_mouse]

7. Not at all.

I suppose I was just mildly surprised at this one getting a press conference.

Certainly he seems to be a very busy dude. Good on him. I just haven't heard much from him recently about... other stuff... I could fall into the trap of writing his job description, which would be fraught with mishap. Has he said anything about the corruption scandals? He may well have done, I've been a little out of the loop, recently.

[blm]

9. Spoke about them on 4 radio shows in the last 2 weeks.

He also crafted the amendment to outlaw secret jails that BushInc has been using in other countries.

[baby_mouse]

10. Did he!? Bravo!

It's interesting how little I'm hearing about these things.

There's not much positive talk on these boards, in general, IMHO.

[kerrygoddess]

13. Hmmm.... Well I happen to know

that just about everything Kerry does gets posted here - because I post it on my blog and also here.

Try browsing through these links:

'John Kerry In The News' - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?cat=6

'John Kerry Press Releases' - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?cat=29

'John Kerry Speeches & Floor Statements' - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?cat=4

'John Kerry Statements' - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?cat=3

[baby_mouse]

17. Jolly Good! Bookmarked. nt

[wisteria]

38. Yes, and Kerry has been involved in a lot of those issues too.

You don't think it's that important to protect our children and insure they are not being exploited?

[baby_mouse]

46. Yes, certainly.

What concerned me was the focus. However, another poster, as you will see from the upper thread, has set me straight.

[bemildred]

40. Ordinarily, I would agree, but

having read through the press release, I think this one is OK, the change makes sense.

It's annoying the way politicians focus on this stuff while the country circles the drain economically and politically, but this change appears to make sense, so I'm willing to leave it be.

[seabeyond]

49. i think this girl being molest and turned into a porn princess is

pretty important. i am sorry you dont feel these childrens lives are not important and are not worth our lawmakers time.

kerry is a multitasker. he has proven he can do more than thing one at a time. i think standing up for our children is pretty damn important

[DIKB]

3. Hmm

While a good cause, there need to be stiffer penalties, and more of a crackdown on the PRODUCTION of child pornography. Hit it at the source.

[FreedomAngel82]

30. Follow the money

I'm glad he's doing this. I'm surprised it isn't Hillary Clinton.

[katinmn]

4. That poor child!

Exploiting vulnerable kids like that deserves harsher punishment. Kudos to Kerry.

[hobo_baggins]

6. My step-father once commented...

that it should be his legal right to download child porn...then quickly added, not that he'd do that.

I'm suspicious.

[baby_mouse]

8. ???????

UH?

What was your step-fathers reasoning behind this peculiar position??? If you don't mind my asking, that is...

[hobo_baggins]

18. his reasoning was...

people might be looking at legitimate porn and accidently get kiddie porn on their computers, so all kiddie porn should be legal...

[CTLawGuy]

19. well

most likely accidentally downloading kiddy porn is not a crime, because the law will generally require some degree of knowledge of what you are possessing or downloading. It depends on the statute in your state or the federal government. Either you have to know that the model is underage (can infer this if the model looks obviously not to be an adult (prepubescent)), or maybe you have to disregard a substantial risk that the model is underage.

However, some laws may not care what you knew at all. You're guilty if you have it.

[TheGunslinger]

21. Well, with *that* kind of reasoning...

Murder should be legal.

After all, I may be out shooting my gun in the woods. A perfectly legal activity. If a bullet goes thru a tree and hits someone and kills them, shouldn't be my fault. Might as well make it legal to kill anyone, anyone time.

[hobo_baggins]

22. hey, i agree his reasoning is horribly flawed

I suspect maybe hes a pervert making excuses

[TheGunslinger]

25. I'd be rather leery of him, myself.

[mzmolly]

11. What a horrendous story!

;(

[kerrygoddess]

12. There's more on this

Kerry, Young Victim Take Up Child Porn Fight
January 6th, 2006

I reported earlier today, that John Kerry held a press conference today in Boston heralding Masha’s Law, bipartisan legislation thatr will dramatically increase penalties for anyone who downloads child pornography off the Internet.

The Boston Channel has a great print story and a video on the press conference.


Here’s a few quips from the story:

Sen. John Kerry has found a powerful ally in a young girl from Russia in the fight against child pornography.

MORE & LINK to Video - http://blog.thedemocraticdaily.com/?p=1573

[Clarkie1]

14. I applaud Kerry for doing something to address this issue, but...

unfortunately I don't think the legislation will do much if anything to curtail the problem.

It is almost impossible to trace who downloads what off the internet; using more resources to go after the perpetrators of the abuse would be far more effective.

Edit: almost impossible unless you are the NSA, and we don't want to go there.

[politicasista]

15. It's better than nothing though n/t

[Clarkie1]

16. I agree. n/t

[zann725]

20. And the compassion on his face in this pic. It's a tough issue to tackle

Especially since a lot of the powerful "inner-circle" in DC and across the nation exploit/leech-off such child exploitation.

Thanks again, JK, for standing up for what's humane.

[blm]

32. Remember, his was the 1st DA's office to offer rape-counseling to victims

back in the late 70s.

He gets it.

[zann725]

41. And he also stresses he's in favor of abortion in cases of Incest.

Yes, he cares about Women's rights.


One of the MANY reason he's my Prez!

[karynnj]

26. They clearly won't catch all or even most

but I assume that when they find someone selling this filth they can get records of who bought it. Don't people pay for this if so there would be a trail of financial records?

I know there were a cluster of cases in my area (that I only vaguely remember) where supposedly "respecable" community members were charged with downloading pornography. I don't know what penalties they got - but front page local newspaper coverage was an additional (well deserved) punishment.

[Dr Fate]

23. I'm glad he is shining some light on this issue....

...it's a moral issue that needs adressing.

I'll have to disagree with DUers who say this is a back-burner issue- it's a "fabric of society" issue that can't be ignored...

[karynnj]

24. Also it's a real issue that hurts real people - vulnerable children

You can see the former prosecutor showing here. The penalties have to be made higher to discourage people from buying this garbage - which may make less a market for it.

[globalvillage]

27. Is anyone co-sponsoring this with Sen Kerry?

Didn't a certain PA senator recently have the nerve to link Boston with pedophelia?
Who's protecting our children, Ricky?
Looks like the Senator from Massachusetts to me.

[farmbo]

28. Geezee...The biggest GOP scandal since TeaPot Dome, and Kerry muddles

...the message with some do-gooder initiative.

:shrug:

[globalvillage]

29. I honestly don't think this is distracting fro m the GOP scandal

It only reenforces that while the GOP is mired in this mess of their own making, the Dems are taking care of things that are important to the majority of Americans.
I think it emphasizes our compassion over their greed.
People do tend to love their children, you know.

[FreedomAngel82]

31. It's called multitasking

[globalvillage]

34. It is. But it's more than that.

I know Sen Kerry is not intentionally proposing this legislation now to coincide with the GOP scandal. He's doing it to help kids.
But it does show people that we are the party of values. When you contrast what he's doing with what's going on in the repub party, the picture is pretty striking.
Of course, it would have to make it to the MSM outside of Boston to really have an impact.

[blm]

33. He's supposed to stop doing the REST of his job? He talks and chews gum

at the same time, too.

[karynnj]

35. On the same day, he DID an interview with Rachel Maddows

and said that the Congress had more corruption than he ever show in his 21 + years in Congress. (He even employed it was worse than Nixon.) Link to a post where you can hear interview: http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=273&topic_id=62735&mesg_id=62767
Kerry is not on any committee that would likely be involved even if Congress investigated. So, what exactly should he be doing on the scandal.

I'm sure when this legislation was being worked on, the Abramoff plea wasn't known. Should he have canceled the press conference (that was covered apparently only in Massachusetts? The coverage actually was more on the little girl, who is very charming, poised and extremely intelligent, than on the Senator. Her new mother and she seemed very happy he was there.

Even in Boston, if they didn't have this story, they would have found something else to cover in those few minutes. They wouldn't add addition minutes to the scandal coverage. So, instead they showed a Democrat pushing legislation that will help those poor kids who are abused in this and in addition to the Senator, they have a very good spokesman - the young girl.

[globalvillage]

36. I heard him on AAR.

He rocked. And Rachel is just a wonderful interviewer, isn't she?

I can't imagine that Sen Kerry would have ever considered disappointing that child. What a tragedy she's suffered. And what a great spokesperson. After all she's been through, her courage is amazing.

[karynnj]

37. I was blown away by her poise

Speaking to the press she was natural, articulate and did a very good job. She had her new mother on one side and the Senator on the other as she spoke - but I doubt many growns ups could have discussed the issue as well as she did.

It was cute seeing them exchanging hugs and smiling at the end - I think you are right that the Senator would do all he could to avoid dissapointing that girl. The girl and her mother live in Pittsburg and came to Massachusetts for the interview.

[rosesaylavee]

45. And I am sure that he has been working on this more than

just this past week or two... he would be remiss and morally wrong to ignore it until a "better or more politically correct time".

[Mass]

48. He has been speaking about the issue of the NSA hearings several times

Should we stop all the initiatives that can ACTUALLY help people while we try to get Bush out of power? Who will that help?

Except if, of course, you are only interested in politics and not in people. Dont be surprised that more and more people dont vote.

Just to be clear, this is certainly not a major initiative, even on the subject of children sexual exploitation, but I have no issue with somebody proposing this law.

[wisteria]

39. Pornography and web exploitation such as this scars children for life.

I was surprised that those who do these things to children have not been dealt with harshly in the past.I was also surprised that it is so easy for these sick perverted people to entertain themselves at the expense of the children. If we can't legally stop this than we should make it nearly impossible to gain access to in ways such as Senator Kerry suggests.Good for him for tackling this serious issue.

[wiley]

42. Good. But it does nothing to touch

the often American tourist fed exploitation of children for sexual purposes in other countries, nor does it do anything to address the habit of men to specifically ask and pay for enslaved undocumented children for their "disease free" gang bangs. Another victory for only letting heterosexuals adopt children! That's a very thorough screening process. And what would make a parent sell their child to these people - assuming they are not kidnapped?

It's one tiny step, but it's not going to get the overseas and in country scumbags slave masters who only care about the money they make. Kerry should keep working on this! The fact that there are people who believe that abortion should be illegal even in the case of incest shows just how much those people really care about children.

[Nutmegger]

43. That's true

What about the measures DeLay assured wouldn't get passed???

[wiley]

44. Well maybe there's even more to his story.

I want that man and his fraternity out of my Congress.

CORRUPT REPUBLICANS

IMPEACH

[Mass]

47. I dont think anybody would disagree with you that this is just a beginning

Better have a beginning that could pass because it is a bi-partisan effort than nothing. It is at least my opinion and it seems to be how things advance in this country, unfortunately.

[wiley]

50. Like I said, GOOD