11/10/2004 06:27:33 PM|||Nathan Moore|||

I'm honestly sorry to see General Ashcroft go. Unlike many in my profession, I daresay I haven't found that my personal rights have been trampled. I wasn't caught fighting US forces with the Taliban in Afghanistan. I haven't been checking out books on homemade explosives from my public library (may I pause and emphasize the word public?). And I certainly have not, well...what else is there? I know that the Patriot Act (which garnered significant Democratic support, by the way) more or less did away with the knock-and-announce requirement for executing terrorist related federal search warrants, but I believe a federal judge still has to sign off on them, just like state judges. Hmm...what else is there to be concerned about? Oh, that's right, nothing.

The TACDL listserv (Tennessee Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers) was ecstatic over the resignation of John Ashcroft. I think FDR said something about fearing fear, but I'm sure my stance falls on completely deaf ears, who have already convinced themselves they no longer have the right to dissent. Well, except on the TACDL listserv, where they often repeatedly have the opportunity to spout anti-Ashcroft bile, with email signatures and all, without apparent retribution.

For instance, there's this gem

Having known you for a long time, it is obvious you spent too
much time on the other side of the play yard. Ashcroft did more in a few
years to damage individual rights than probably anyone in American
history. It will take years of court battles to straighten out the mess
he has created.

Your friend always,

Joe

See my debunking above. Then there's this well-thought out one

I can't believe you said there was nothing wrong with
Ashcroft. You mean, other than he was a Nazi who did not
support the US Constitution?

The email clearly says "Nancy Meyer". Somebody be sure to call the Department of Justice. Oh yes, then this one

Bush will just find other Nazis to replace these fascists. Tyranny continued under Hitler for several years after the Night of the Long Knives.

These are attorneys. Sheesh.

|||110013345370609486|||Ashcroft's Resignation11/11/2004 09:00:03 AM|||Anonymous|||Dumbest. Attorneys. Ever.11/12/2004 08:51:08 AM|||honestpartisan|||I'm actually really happy to see John Ashcroft go, for lots of reasons. But here are three reasons in particular that John Ashcroft's dogmatism has made it more likely that I will die in a terrorist attack:

1. According to Seymour Hirsch's great book "Chain Of Command", Ashcroft refused to take the death penalty off the table when bargaining with Zaccharias Moussouai. A plea deal with him could have yielded useful information about Al-Qaeda that could have been more helpful in preventing terrorist attacks than an emotionally satisfying execution.

2. According to David Cole's book "Enemy Aliens", the Ashcroft Justice Department locked up Muslim men by the busload who had no connection to terrorism. There are still Al-Qaeda terror cells in the U.S., according to most experts, but our law enforcement officials have vitually no one who can infiltrate them (no one who speaks Arabic, Urdu, or Pashto, for example). That means that we would have to rely heavily on informants. Unfortunately, when you wholesale lock people up based just on their religion, you make a hell of a lot less likely that people in that community will come forward with information about terrorists, for a reasonable fear that they will be locked up themselves.

3. Ashcroft refused to use Brady Bill gun registration data in fighting terrorists. His ideological opposition to a duly-passed act of Congress makes it more likely that terrorists can get guns.