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U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft Resigns
andyring writes "In a move that will undoubtedly make many /. readers jump for joy (although perhaps not myself), Attorney General John Ashcroft announced he will resign, according to multiple news sources. While many here dislike him, others have more favorable opinions of him. He became the point man on the USA Patriot Act, which typically ignites harsh opinions on both sides of the aisle."
Reader cnsc1rtr , referring to the AP's version of the story, writes "He gave Bush a five-page, handwritten letter in which he stated, 'The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved.'"
He resigned because of health problems and exhaustion. Apparently he has been having various medical difficulties over the past year or so. I don't think this one was Bush's decision.
OK. Here's the article. The statement in question occurs in paragraph three. Please explain how was it taken "out of context"?
Whoa ... Stalin was an authoritarian communist. Probably the complete opposite of what is considered "conservative".
Take a look at http://www.politicalcompass.org
The resignation was written November 2nd. Election Day. You're right, this is a custom that's been going on for many years.
In this case, I think it to be true. I just saw it on CNN'S site. It mentions some remarks by President Bush in regards to the resignations of Ashcroft and Evans.
Pete Carr Owner Chatmag.com
Nope, only requirement for being on the supreme court is for the President of the US to nominate you, and be confirmed by the Senate.
IIRC, if you look back at history you will find several ex-state governers were made Supreme Court Justices.
Come play Heroes of Might and Magic Mini online.
The only thing I remember her doing was frying a whole bunch of fellow citizens down in Texas.
While I have no strong opinions about Janet Reno (pro or con), I think you're leaving some basic facts out of the equation here. The Branch Davidians (the "fellow citizens" you're referring to here) were in violation of several firearms laws at varying levels. Law enforcement authorities obtained a proper warrant and served it on February 28, 1993. If you're keeping score, that was almost two weeks before Janet Reno was even sworn in as Attorney General on March 12th. In the resulting raid, four federal agents were murdered by these same "fellow citizens" that you are (at least tangentially) defending. These were men with families, and they were just doing their job. I've never understood why it's not okay for the government to enforce the law, but it's all fine and dandy to kill law enforcement officers.
Janet Reno made the best of a bad situation. Even though she had only been in office for a couple of weeks when the final raid happened and had very little to do with its planning and how it was executed, she took full responsibility for it. She was, after all, the Attorney General at the time that it happened. But there's a certain amount of logical inconsistency here; we are told that we cannot blame President Bush for the intelligence failures that led to 9/11 because he had only been in office for eight months before it happened, but we can blame Waco on Reno even though it started before she became AG and she had only been in office for a couple of weeks. (For the record, I don't blame 9/11 on President Bush.)
You know that the FBI/ATF bent over backwards to bring the Waco siege to a peaceful conclusion, don't you? They repeatedly tried to negotiate with Koresh, offering food and other basic supplies if he would just release some of the children from the compound, to which he replied (literally) "kiss my ass." The way that the situation resolved itself was tragic and there will probably always be questions about it, but the basic fact of the matter is that the Branch Davidians had 51 days to end the standoff peacefully and they chose not to. And I've never understood the mindset that can dismiss the murder of law enforcement agents, particularly in the post-9/11 era.
We're going down, in a spiral to the ground
From Ashcroft's letter: The demands of justice are both rewarding and depleting. I take great personal satisfaction in the record which has been developed. The objective of securing the safety of Americans from crime and terror has been achieved. The rule of law has been strengthened and upheld in the courts. Yet, I believe that the Department of Justice would be well served by new leadership and fresh inspiration. I believe that my energies and talents should be directed toward other challenging horizons.
Vista:XPSP2::ME:98SE
Ashcroft may have suppored the USAPA, but he didn't enact it.
Again, HE WROTE IT.
Over 90% of the words in the act are directly from his office and most of that directly from his hand.
Yeah, he also "supported it" by scaremongering congress into enacting it without even reading it.
In any rational examination that makes him PRIMARILY responsible. All the others are just contributory infringers. They may have abrogated their power to him, but he did not turn it down and still brags of his actions today.
Everyone should be asked to read the whole act at least once in their lives. Most people would be surprised how much stuff the government *couldn't* do that just made sense before hand.
Well, according to Rep. Ron Paul of Texas, the members of congress weren't even allowed to read the PATRIOT act before voting on it.
From the article:
Paul confirms rumors circulating in Washington that this sweeping new law, with serious implications for each and every American, was not made available to members of Congress for review before the vote. "It's my understanding the bill wasn't printed before the vote -- at least I couldn't get it. They played all kinds of games, kept the House in session all night, and it was a very complicated bill. Maybe a handful of staffers actually read it, but the bill definitely was not available to members before the vote."
Coincidentally, my dad's friend from work ate dinner with him today, and this came up at the conversation.
Both of the aforementioned men are in the Navy, and our guest knew someone on the Lincoln that day. The "Mission Accomplished" banner was actually meant for the crew members of the ship - they had just finished their nine month stint away from home, and had "accomplished" their mission. It wasn't meant for Bush's visit.
~stephen
Oh please yourself. Ashcroft *did* have the DOJ write the Patriot Act, and its principal author was the assistant attorney general Viet D. Dinh. Who did you think wrote it?
That's it, Mr. Giraffe, get all the marmalade.
PREDICTION: Unless Bush has problems passing a law allowing Corporate America to loot social security (instead of the neo-cons looting it), the "Alert Level" thing is going to quietly fade away.
Wow, troll bait, but I have to bite. If you look at the numbers, you'll see that Social Security has seen a bigger surplus in the first 4 years under Bush than it saw under all 8 years of Clinton.
Click here to see the numbers for yourself.
You'll also see that we only saw one year of REAL surplus under Clinton - 2000. There was an 86.6 billion surplus in the budget. 1.9B the year before, but that's not anything to have a party over.
One other interesting thing you'll see is that the national debt, in terms of GDP, was higher under Clinton than under any other President in the presented data. Under Bush, the national debt has fallen from 49.5% GDP at Clinton's highest point to 36.1% in 2003.
Finally, if you look at total government spending in terms of GDP, we're spending on average less now than we did under Clinton.
"Oh, that is all well and good, but, voice or no voice, the people can always
be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is
tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of
patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same way in any
country." -Hermann Goering, Nuremburg, 1947
You've been brainwashed, krimka. Brainwashed. Nobody wants terrorism here. Neither do we want our Constitutionally-mandated civil rights abrogated.
FACT: PATRIOT Act has been abused. More than once. More than twice.
If you could say that PATRIOT Act could and would ONLY be used to investigate terrorists, that would be a different story. But you can't say that: firstly, because we've already seen that it isn't true; secondly, because the more power you give to law enforcement personnel, the more those individual persons will abuse it - it's just too easy to say, "uh, yeah, it's a terrorism investigation, sure"; and thirdly, because you won't know that they're terrorists until AFTER you've violated their constitutional rights.
The fact that a group of assholes have committed horrible crimes against Americans, in the name of Islam or whatever, does not justify the abrogation of the Constitutional rights of Americans, and *I* resent your implicit belittling of the sacrifices of those thousands (millions?) of Americans who have *knowingly* and *willingly* fought and died to protect those rights.
Ce n'est pas un vrai mouvement de robot!
No, Clinton was the master of the nuanced evasion. Bush and his handlers are the masters of doublethink.
Why yes, I AM a rocket scientist!
Does that mean he regrets congradulating those Navy guys on their 9-month trip?
Or was it just foreshadowing that they probably had to get sent back because of the depth of the quagmire we're in.
And since Bush's speach was announcing the "end of major combat operations", are you saying that Bush ended the operations before he thought the mission was accomplished!?! That's very irresponsible.
What I don't understand is why are you guys not protesting?
Have you given up?
Google for 'Miami Model'. Then mod Fleener and F8Free up.
Sorry, but this is one of those after-the-fact rationalizations that people have invented to justify the banner once it became clear just how ridiculous it was.
How so, you ask? Well, if it was a banner meant for the ship's crew, to celebrate the completion of their mission, why did the White House make up the banner and bring it to the ship? Not the sort of thing you would expect if it was just something the Navy does as a matter of course at the end of a long voyage.
The President and his people are saying that the banner was the "Navy's idea" so they don't have to take responsibility for their gaffe. But then blaming the troops for the Commander in Chief's screw-ups is something the GOP is getting pretty comfortable doing these days.
Read my blog.
*Sigh* - where do you get this stuff? Newsmax? Washington Times? Try doing some work for yourself, will you?
0 15 10:@@@S
t em p/~r107BHdfjx:e359387:- bin/query/F?r107:1:./tem p/~r107BHdfjx:e371105:- bin/query/F?r107:1:./tem p/~r107BHdfjx:e382616:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/z?d107:SN
STATUS: (color indicates Senate actions)
10/4/2001:
Introduced in the Senate. Read the first time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under Read the First Time. (text of measure as introduced: CR S10307-10333)
10/9/2001:
Read the second time. Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 187.
10/11/2001:
Measure laid before Senate. (consideration: CR S10547-10630)
10/11/2001:
S.AMDT.1899 Amendment SA 1899 proposed by Senator Feingold. (consideration: CR S10570-10575; text: CR S10570)
To make amendments to the provision relating to interception of computer trespasser communications.
10/11/2001:
S.AMDT.1899 Motion to table amendment SA 1899 agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 83 - 13. Record Vote Number: 299.
10/11/2001:
S.AMDT.1900 Amendment SA 1900 proposed by Senator Feingold. (consideration: CR S10575-10577; text: CR S10575)
To limit the roving wiretap authority under FISA.
10/11/2001:
S.AMDT.1900 Motion to table amendment SA 1900 agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 90 - 7. Record Vote Number: 300.
10/11/2001:
S.AMDT.1901 Amendment SA 1901 proposed by Senator Feingold. (consideration: CR S10583-10586; text: CR S10583)
To modify the provisions relating to access to business records under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978.
10/11/2001:
S.AMDT.1901 Motion to table amendment SA 1901 agreed to in Senate by Yea-Nay Vote. 89 - 8. Record Vote Number: 301.
10/11/2001:
Passed Senate without amendment by Yea-Nay Vote. 96 - 1. Record Vote Number: 302. (text of bill as passed Senate: CR S10604-10630)
10/30/2001:
Senate vitiated previous passage.
10/30/2001:
Indefinitely postponed by Senate by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S11247)
Note something that's missing? You guessed it - the complete addition of a new section (securing our borders). it was *already there*. Kerry voted *against* the amendments listed.
Here is section IV of the bill *AS SUBMITTED* to the senate:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/F?r107:1:./
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi
You people are incorrigible.
That's it, Mr. Giraffe, get all the marmalade.
Must be reassuring to the USMC presently in Fallujah that what they're doing isn't a major combat operation.
Because it looks like one to me.
Athletic Scholarships to universities make as much sense as academic scholarships to sports teams.