AG lies. says we haven't lost enough of our rights yet

I can't even read the tech news without running into yet more outrageous Bush administration bullshit. This one courtesy of AG Alberto Gonzalez. Ars Technica reports on Yahoo! chatrooms busted for profiting from sex

Finally, I can't let this article pass without noting one truly bewildering statement from US Attorney General Alberto Gonzales:

...'Short of changes in the law in Congress, we may be limited about what we can do in this area,' U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said.

Gonzales told the station he can't use the laws now on the books to shut down Yahoo!'s child sex site. But back in 2002, the station broke the story when federal officials shut down a Web site called 'Candyman' with those existing laws.

The article is right to point out that existing laws have always been sufficient to shut down sites that traffic in child porn or that try to sexually exploit minors. It boggles the mind to think that Gonzales actually has the temerity to claim, with a straight face, that existing laws can't shut down a chatroom where older men try to seduce underage girls by broadcasting pics of their privates to them. With this (false) statement, Gonzales is not-so-subtly angling for new, tougher anti-obscenity laws, and apparently he's willing to lie through his teeth to get them. Some reporter should contact him and ask him exactly what he means when he says that he can't shut down a child sex chatroom with existing US laws.

So now we're expected to believe that, in order to protect our kids from predators, we'll have to give more powers to law enforcement. Maybe they'll call it the No Rights Left Intact law? I'm sure they'll only use their new powers to bust perverts, right?