(MCT) WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court will again be weighing political punishment for dirty… (MCT) WASHINGTON – The Supreme Court will again be weighing political punishment for dirty words, this time involving undeleted expletives exuberantly uttered by the singers Bono and Cher.

On Monday, in a nod to the Bush administration, the high court agreed to consider whether broadcasters can be disciplined for airing “fleeting” obscenities. The vividly rendered First Amendment conflict becomes the latest case pitting free speech rights against government efforts to protect innocent ears.

“A particularly graphic utterance can serve as a first blow that can cause immediate damage,” Solicitor General Paul Clement argued in a legal brief.

The Bush administration supports a Federal Communications Commission rule imposed after Bono and Cher swore briefly in separate live television appearances. Broadcasters say they should not face discipline for obscenities uttered in passing.

In January 2003, during NBC’s live broadcast of the Golden Globe Awards, Bono of the Irish rock group U2 accepted the Best Original Song award by declaring, “This is really, really [expletive] brilliant. Really, really great.”

FCC regulators initially determined that Bono’s use of what officials discretely termed “the F-word” was not indecent because the singer briefly used it as an adjective in conveying enthusiasm. The politically appointed FCC commissioners thought otherwise, concluding that the “core meaning” of the word associated with sexual intercourse was patently offensive even if used only briefly.

In a related episode, Fox Television aired the 2002 Billboard Music Awards in which Cher received an artist achievement award and said: “I’ve also had critics for the past 40 years saying that I was on my way out every year,” Cher declared. “Right. So [expletive] `em. I still have a job and they don’t.”

For several decades, the FCC held enforcement actions would not be pursued against isolated expletives. The prior policy had been roughly since a 1978 Supreme Court case involving comedian George Carlin and his incantation of seven dirty words. This traditional leniency toward fleeting obscenity was reversed FCC commissioners.

Because the swearing episodes were brief, the FCC did not impose financial penalties in either the Cher or Bono case. The rulings, though, put broadcasters on notice that stricter rules were in force, raising the possibility that future swear words might bring financial pain.

– Michael Doyle, McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT) BAGHDAD – Republican presidential candidate John McCain made his eighth trip to Iraq on Sunday, this time holding private talks with U.S. and Iraqi officials about security developments at the end of a bloody week marked by a spike in U.S. troop deaths and a new wave of suicide bombings.

A dozen American soldiers have been killed since March 10, edging the total U.S. death toll closer to 4,000, while suicide bombings and other violence left at least 127 Iraqis dead and nearly 400 wounded throughout the country during the same period, according to Iraqi and U.S. authorities.

The past week’s spasm of violence underscored the fragility of modest gains from the 30,000-troop increase known as “the surge,” which McCain has backed since it began a year ago. The number of attacks in Iraq had dropped by more than half since June, but those figures have begun creeping up since the beginning of the year. U.S. military officials acknowledged the recent upswing in violence but insisted the setback was only temporary.

Rear Adm. Greg Smith, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Iraq, told a news conference Sunday that violence levels remain unacceptably high and that al-Qaida in Iraq is still present and able to carry out attacks.

Yet he was upbeat about long-term prospects for a political solution to the violence.

“There is great hope when you consider the people of Iraq have largely rejected violence and are looking for a positive way forward,” Smith said.

McCain, the senior Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee, was accompanied by two other committee members: Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, an independent, and Lindsey Graham, R-S.C.

Before leaving on the week-long trip, McCain described it as a fact-finding mission. The other stops are in Israel, Britain and France.

– Hannah Allam and Yasseen Taha, McClatchy Newspapers

(MCT) CHICAGO – Take two modern American pastimes, the office pool for sports betting and social networking websites like Facebook.

Put them together and what you get is an efficient way to organize wagers for college basketball’s March Madness – and a new crime.

People who host online pools and collect fees conceivably face criminal charges and jail if found guilty of operating an illegal online gambling operation.

“It is fair to say this raises questions” with the FBI, said agency spokesman Ross Rice. “There could be a violation if there’s a payout and if the operators take a cut.”

Even before the NCAA men’s Division I basketball tournament begins next week, more than 20,000 online pools are circulating on Facebook, which has roughly 70 million members.

Many of the tourney pools have just one or two members at this point – the organizers – but other groups have already reached the hundreds.

It is unclear how many are asking for money to play, but at least several are.

One site touts that last year saw “a top prize of nearly $300, this year we are aiming for a total pool of at least $500.”

The “$$ M’R 2008 NCAA Tournament Pool $$” Facebook pool advertises that the group is for “those of you interested in participating in our **prize money**.”

The Facebook page even lists individual names and payouts from last year’s tournament.

Internet gaming is illegal in the United States, making it fairly obvious to gambling experts that running a March Madness pool on a social networking site like Facebook is against the law.

Also, unlike most office pools, the online pools are far more likely to have players from several states.

And with the exception of horse racing and lotteries, interstate wagering is illegal.

Illegal online gambling is a huge enterprise, estimated to be worth nearly $15 billion annually.

In a statement, Facebook said it “does not condone the use of the site for any unlawful purposes, and users must agree as part of the Terms of Use not to conduct illegal activity.” The company wouldn’t comment further.

– Eric Benderoff, Chicago Tribune