<center><h2><a href=http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/15/opinion/15KRUG.html?pagewanted=print&position=>Travesty of Justice</a></h2></center> <blockquote>By PAUL KRUGMAN No question: John Ashcroft is the worst attorney general in history. For this column, let's just focus on Mr. Ashcroft's role in the fight against terror. Before 9/11 he was aggressively uninterested in the terrorist threat. He didn't even mention counterterrorism in a May 2001 memo outlining strategic priorities for the Justice Department. When the 9/11 commission asked him why, he responded by blaming the Clinton administration, with a personal attack on one of the commission members thrown in for good measure. We can't tell directly whether Mr. Ashcroft's post-9/11 policies are protecting the United States from terrorist attacks. But a number of pieces of evidence suggest otherwise. First, there's the absence of any major successful prosecutions. The one set of convictions that seemed fairly significant that of the "Detroit 3" appears to be collapsing over accusations of prosecutorial misconduct. (The lead prosecutor has filed a whistle-blower suit against Mr. Ashcroft, accusing him of botching the case. The Justice Department, in turn, has opened investigations against the prosecutor. Payback? I report; you decide.) Then there is the lack of any major captures. Somewhere, the anthrax terrorist is laughing. But the Justice Department, you'll be happy to know, is trying to determine whether it can file bioterrorism charges against a Buffalo art professor whose work includes harmless bacteria in petri dishes. Perhaps most telling is the way Mr. Ashcroft responds to criticism of his performance. His first move is always to withhold the evidence. Then he tries to change the subject by making a dramatic announcement of a terrorist threat.</a></h2></center> Yessiree...John "Beaten by a Dead Man" Ashcroft, appointed USAG not for his qualifications, but as a sop to the religious right-wing nuts who helped propel Dubbyuh to political prominence. Herr Ashcroft is simply too mean spirited and stupid to be more than a spear-carrier for the Administration, and fall upon his sword when ordered. As he did when he was in contempt of Congress just last week. And justice is a concept on the very periphery of his consciousness.
I don't follow the activity or comments of John Ashcroft very closely. I remember an event in which he supposedly used taxpayer money to cover up the breast(s) of a partially nude statue of justice. I thought that such activity was amusing. I wonder how he would behave if the Sistine Chapel were in the USA. He might think that it were a pornography display.
The worst? I dunno, but certainly as bad as any and doubly threatening to the way of life our founders intended and that so many of our soldiers and civilians have fought to defend than any that I know about. It's good to have an Attorney General of strong will. It's very unwise to have one so superstitious, self-admiring and legally unsupervised as Herr Asscroft. Psychoblues
The chase, Kathianne, is a feeble attempt to cut me down because I really like Busch beer. I stated my thoughts concerning Herr Ashcroft. There being no credible rebuttal available from the peanut gallery only an attack on my person was forthcoming. That's the chase, dear friend. Psychoblues PS, I'm not imbibing at all tonite.
Hey Psycho, believe it or not, I often find your posts enlightening, just not tonight. I could care less if you are imbibing or not, I am. On top of Nyquil no less. So there. Sober or not, I'm right. :
I fucking love John Ashcroft! Wish there were more fine conservatives like him to rankle leftist, socialist Democrats.
Credible rebuttal? You haven't posted anything worthy of a rebuttal, just your usual inane ramblings. Besides, who in their right mind would engage in a debate with someone who will ultimately refuse to provide sources and then disappear and avoid all questions after luring in those interested in debating? Your worthy of comedic relief, but not a debate.
Speaking of Herr Ashcroft, here are some comparisons of Bush to Hitler. I responded to someone in another forum, who had a picture in her sig. comparing Bush to Hitler, that I thought that was an extreme comparison. She disagreed, and supplied me with some comparisons of the two: Both men assumed power in defiance of the will of the majority; both men used "great lies" to pursue their warmongering agendas; both men preyed upon humanity's basest instincts to disseminate those "great lies"; both men were appeased by the British government, Hitler through Neville Chamberlain and Bush through Tony Blair; both men were willing to use national tragedies to justify the destruction of civil liberties, Hitler through the burning of the Reichstag and Bush through the September 11th terrorist attacks; both men were/are suspected of either participating in, or ignoring warnings about the imminence of, these tragedies in order to enhance their political stature and power; both men demonstrated no compunction about exploiting a culture of death for political self-aggrandizement, Hitler through his well-publicized genocide campaigns, and Bush who, while governor of Texas, routinely denied DNA tests to death row inmates, even though such tests could prevent wrongful executions; both men were willing to appeal to racism, Hitler through his quest for a "master race," and Bush through his condemnation of affirmative action policies, which primarily benefit racial minorities. While denouncing such policies as "preferential treatment," Bush predictably displayed no such aversion to the preferential treatment enjoyed by wealthy white people, like himself, through a system of nepotism and cronyism; both men reveled in war and exploited the military to satiate their personal ambitions and vendettas; both men used war to enrich their political cronies; both men demonstrated contempt for international law and the concerns of the world community; and both men believed they were/are on some holy crusade inspired by a "divine province" that placed them into power. -------------- I still think a Bush/Hitler comparison is silly, as Hitler was perhaps the most abominable leader of the past 500 years, but some of the similarities warrant attention.