“Two senators – one a conservative Republican, the other a moderate Democrat – who spoke with Ashcroft…were surprised at his lack of command of the basic issues. Whether it was lack of interest or lack of intellectual firepower, the Attorney General seemed not to appreciate the complexities of the constitutional issues he was dealing with.” Nat Hentoff cites Stephen Brill’s After to depict amateur hour in the Ashcroft Justice Department.
Category: Patriot Act
Man of the Hour.
The Post profiles Anthony Romero, the current head of the ACLU. Intriguing to note that the organization has grown by 33% (100,000 new members) in the past eighteen months. Even if I disagree strongly with the ACLU on campaign finance, I think most of the time they’re doing God’s work. So that membership stat may end up being Ashcroft’s only positive legacy.
The Ministry of Information at Work.
In related news, how are your federal anti-terrorist tax dollars being spent? Thanks to Ashcroft and Tom DeLay, to interdict Texas Democrats, not terrorists. Apparently, DeLay and his Texas cronies brought the Feds in to spy on their political enemies (during their redistricting sojourn to Oklahoma), and then engaged in a shredding-fest the day federal involvement came to light. I suppose with Ashcroft at the helm it was only a matter of time before our terrorist defense shield started operating this way.
More! More!
Like a junkie looking for another fix, Ashcroft takes time away from putting down gay pride events to beg Congress for increased powers in fighting terrorism. If the death penalty doesn’t even work as a deterrent in “normal” crime, why would it stop terrorists?
We only lock up the bad people.
The Justice Department gives its most detailed accounting yet of how its used its post-9/11 powers in the war on terror, although the vagueness of the report does little to satisfy congressional critics and civil liberties advocates. On a loosely related note, it must be some weird cosmic irony that the spokesperson for the Ashcroft Justice Dept. is named Comstock.
Patriot Games.
Among its many, many, MANY faults, apparently Patriot Act II also guts the Clean Air Act. Bizarre. In related news, Attorney-General Ashcroft finds an unlikely ally in NY Senator Chuck Schumer.
Now for ruin, and a red dawn.
It looks like the worst-case scenario outlined by Alternet yesterday is coming about sooner than expected. Senator Orrin Hatch leads a GOP charge to eliminate the sunset provisions in the Patriot Act, thus making permanent the sweeping antiterrorism provisions of the first bill and setting the stage for PATRIOT II. Let’s hope Hatch doesn’t have the votes.
Don’t suspect a friend – report him.
Wiretaps, deportations, DNA databases, secret arrests, you name it. Alternet summarizes the many dangerous implications of PATRIOT II, Attorney General Ashcroft’s upcoming salvo against American civil liberties. The Bushies are going to need another war to pass this one off on us. (Via Genehack, whom I’ve got my eye on…)
Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God.
Nat Hentoff recoils at the provisions of the Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003, Attorney General Ashcroft’s next salvo in the war on civil liberties. Meanwhile, Dubya’s bean counters at the White House OMB try to ascertain the monetary value of lost privacy and freedom. Sigh…you know it’s gotten bad when even GOP apparatchiks like Dick Armey are calling out the Justice Department.
Do whatcha like.
Checks and balances? Bah, humbug. Like the legislative branch on the matter of Iraq, the judiciary has now also capitulated to the chief executive, allowing Dubya to detain American citizens at will in the name of fighting terrorism. Oh, heck, let’s bring back torture too while we’re at it.