John Ashcroft's Amerika

Captiol Hill Blue ^ | 22 Nov 02 | Doug Thompson

[dts32041]

Attorney General John Ashcroft is getting what he wants ? a totalitarian government free to spy on its citizens, destroy the first and fourth amendments of the Constitution and undermine the very foundations of the Republic.

Armed with ominous tools like the USA Patriot Act and the Pentagon?s Total Information Awareness System, Ashcroft and his legions are turning this country into a police state where every American is a file number, every citizen is a suspect and every action a reason for suspicion.

Even worse, a lot of supposedly-smart people down at 1600 Pennsylvania are letting this airhead get away this rampant destruction of the Constitution and individual rights.

Ashcroft became attorney general because he couldn?t hold on to a job on his own. Elected to the Senate in 1994, he lost to the very dead Mel Carnahan in 2000, leaving the Senate with a 50-50 tie before Jim Jeffords bolted and put Tom Daschle in charge. Instead of a 51-49 margin that could have survived Jeffords? decision to split, we got Carnahan?s wife in a Senate version of affirmative action. Two years later, Jim Talent did what Ashcroft couldn?t do ? win the seat at the ballot box.

So Dubya caved in to conservatives who wanted Ashcroft in Washington, even if the voters of Missouri did not, and named him attorney general, a move that had most legal scholars shaking their head. Everybody knew Ashcroft as a bad senator, but the legal community also knew he was a lousy lawyer with Draconian views on long-standing American traditions of individual rights, privacy and due process.

Most expected Ashcroft to be a short timer but most didn?t expect Osama bin Laden to send his goons to the U.S. to hijack American airliners and crash them into buildings. In the wake of 9-11, anger has replaced reason, the need for revenge overshadows judgment and the John Ashcrofts of the world now have carte blanche to ride roughshod over the very freedoms that bin Laden and his thugs wanted to destroy all along.

Ashcroft has emerged as a power in the Bush Administration because he is willing to do what others find both unthinkable and unacceptable ? tear up the Constitution and unleash the massive information gathering capability of the federal government on average American citizens.

The attorney general is a zealot and zealots are always dangerous ? even if they are supposed to play on your side of the fence.

Since 9-11, Ashcroft has expanded the ability of the U.S. Department of Justice to spy on ordinary Americans, authorizing more wiretaps and surveillance than any attorney general in modern times.

He has authorized the creation of massive databases to track American gun owners, American travel and the day-to-day financial transactions of all Americans. The new databases will allow Uncle Sam to know how much money you have in the bank, how you spend it, where you go on any given day of the week, what guns you own, what cars you drive and when and where you buy gas, groceries or condoms.

?This brings back the old days of Hoover and his personal hit lists,? says retired FBI agent Alan Matthews. ?Most of us had hoped those days were long gone.?

Terrorism succeeds when the victims of terrorists change their way of life, when fear dictates policy and hatred replaces reason. Terrorism wins when freedom becomes secondary to the cause.

Welcome to John Ashcroft?s America. It ain?t the America envisioned by the founding fathers in the past but, sadly, it is the America of the future.

[dts32041]

Posted with out comment, I figure the Kool Aid drinkers will do that.

[RedBloodedAmerican]

Consider? the ?source?, I always? say.

[Russell Scott]

A black helicoptor flew over my house today pulling a banner that said "John Ashcroft is watching you."

[MissAmericanPie]

I would like to know your opinion, do you trust these powers in the hands of Gore or Hillary? Given Bill's use of the IRS to punish his enemies, and their theft of FBI files, what fun he would have had with these capabilities.

Will we never have another Clinton type personality in office? What are your thoughts on the matter?

[donozark]

Contrary to what author states, the voters of Missouri DID want John Ashcroft re-elected. The well documented cases of fraud that have so plagued St.Louis for years, were responsible for his loss, just as they were the defeat of PROP B (CCW) in 1999. I have several articles bookmarked for all to read, which point out the degree of fraud in St.L. 25K "dual residents." Ex-cons. Dead people. Even dogs...were voting.

No excuse for author not knowing this. Another "hit piece" on Ashcroft.

[Rockyrich]

We could always think of Janut Elrenio. Could she do better??

[Dr. Frank fan]

For some reason, John Ashcroft became the anointed bogeyman for all those people who worry about totalitarianism. If a law is passed which "takes away" "some of our most precious rights", it's also (for some reason) "just what John Ashcroft wanted". The image painted is that John Ashcroft secretly craves a totalitarian police state.

I have no idea where people get this idea. There's no actual evidence for it.

And the only possible explanation I can think of is that people have so easily gotten this idea about John Ashcroft because he's a relatively religious person.

I mean, even ignorant high school kids and 55 year old ex-hippie grandmas who don't know jack squat about John Ashcroft still seem convinced that he "wants" a totalitarian police state, and John Ashcroft (about whom they know nothing, except of course that he's religious) "scares" them. Again, the only reason I can think of for why this might be is that people like that are easily convinced that any person who is religious must want a police state.

It's just interesting, that's all.

[joesnuffy]

Wait for Hillary to get in and she can replace Ashcroft
With Chief Moose
No Profiling Of Middle Eastern Men
Open Borders
CAIR
When if comes time to justify the budget...who will they arrest to satisfy their hunger...
the arrestees will be PC as always...imo

[ozzymandus]

Typical leftist hit piece on Ashcroft, loaded with untruths.

[Rockyrich]

We could always think of Janut Elrenio. Could she do better??

[AppyPappy]

Thompson's on the sauce again. He's seeing pink elephants.

[pgyanke]

What a bunch of excrement. The sources I have read-- that haven't been a bunch of hyped up scare-mongers-- say that the reforms being pushed roll back 30 years of Democrackhead dilution of our intelligence capabilities.

Do I trust any government official farther than I can throw them? Nope. However, I'll take a crack at trusting this administration to put things to right over the echoing voices of the previous administration.

[SpaceBar]

Next time you talk to a lib, ask them to specifically enumerate what rights Ashcroft has taken from them. Then watch them stammer and resort to name calling.

[Lysander]

We could always think of Janut Elrenio. Could she do better??

With these new powers? Think about it. It is not the abuse of power, but the power to abuse that counts.

[Lysander]

We could always think of Janut Elrenio. Could she do better??

1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th, 9th, 10th, to begin with. Though I am not a liberal and I think you meant Bush adminsitration not "Ashcroft" per se.

[pgyanke]

"With these new powers? Think about it. It is not the abuse of power, but the power to abuse that counts."

---

No, it's the abuse of power that counts regardless of the powers granted.

[dljordan]

You'll see more soon.

[Nuke'm Glowing]

Any aspect of our government with these new enhanced powers scares me. A President Hitlery Rodham with these powers will make me leave the country as that just down right terrifies the hell out of me.

[Area51]

Perhaps you can explain away unreasonable searches and seizure...

Read the Law, they now have the right to access my finacial records without a search warrent by simpy telling the financial institution that they suspect.....Same with Medical records and Pharmacy records. They also can track my purchases thru Credit card records. All this is to be incorporated into one large database, Including Gun Purchases.

And the ability to search your personal property without informing you for a period of time. And if they do find something "suspicious" they can send you away for months with out ANY contact with attorneys or family.... 'For national Security Reasons.' No Duely elected court, no representation, no public information at all. Just a good old fashioned railjob in front of some "Secret" Court appointed under the veil of National Security.

I don't give a rats Ass who is attempting to acquire these kind of Gestopo Tools. It is dead wrong, And Sooner or later WILL be abused.

It was but a month ago that THIS Administration oversaw the Abuse of Firearm Purchase records to call, show up at their homes and harass Gunowners trying to find the two killers in Maryland. And this from Politicians that are supposed to be ON YOUR SIDE. Imagine what Hitlary type will do with such tools.

Thanks to Jorge Delano Bush and John Ashcroft.

The same two that have stood mute while tales of FBI agents lie under oath during trials that put people away for life sentences, or incompetent Jack Booted Thugs shoot innocent Americans in the face and watch as the system covers their asses.


Yeah, we are all safer now. (/sarcasm)

[dirtboy]

Armed with ominous tools like the USA Patriot Act and the Pentagon's Total Information Awareness System, Ashcroft and his legions are turning this country into a police state where every American is a file number, every citizen is a suspect and every action a reason for suspicion.

Uh, Doug, TIA doesn't even exist yet, it's a concept with a $10 million budget over in the Defense Department - and last I checked, Ashcroft was the AG, not the Secretary of Defense.

He has authorized the creation of massive databases to track American gun owners, American travel and the day-to-day financial transactions of all Americans. The new databases will allow Uncle Sam to know how much money you have in the bank, how you spend it, where you go on any given day of the week, what guns you own, what cars you drive and when and where you buy gas, groceries or condoms.

Ashcroft did not authorize this. I think TIA is a bad idea and any research of the government into data mining methods should be an effort to better manage their existing information stream. But Doug, for someone who hectors journalists about failing to check sources, you some blatant mistakes here. Your columns are usually much more accurate than this.