The King is Dead!!

Guess we are all in mourning that Ashcroft it leaving?? NOT. Good ridance. HUGS Chuck

Amen! Unless, of course, da pres is able to come up with a worse creature.

the Cajun

Would someone mind telling me EXACTLY what Ashcroft did that DIRECTLY impacted THEIR life in a NEGATIVE way?

He's constantly villified, but I've found no one who can answer that question.

I doubt I'll find one here.

Patiently yours,

FFF

I heard on the TV news this morning that his probable replacement almost got in trouble by writing some pieces dealing with Abu Ghraib that "appeared" to be critical of the Geneva Conventions.

I think they were more than critical. He said the President could ignore them!!! If it turns out that Bush failed to follow the Geneva Conventions when he was obligated to observe them (they are part of the law in the U.S.) he's a war criminal, by definition. That should be a fun trial!

>Would someone mind telling me EXACTLY what Ashcroft did that

>DIRECTLY impacted THEIR life in a NEGATIVE way?

Just one example:

==Since Ashcroft took office, traditional enforcement of the Voting Rights Act has declined. The Voting Section has all but stopped filing lawsuits against communities alleged to have engaged in discrimination against minority voters. “D.O.J. is a very bureaucratic institution,” Jon Greenbaum, the former Voting Section lawyer, said, “and it’s hard to get cases filed under any Administration, but we were filing cases in the Clinton years.” As even civil-rights advocates acknowledge, there are fewer vote-discrimination cases to bring than there have been in the past. The Justice Department’s Web site says that “several lawsuits of this nature are filed every year,” but since Bush was sworn in the Voting Section has filed just one contested racial vote-discrimination case, in rural Colorado, which it lost. Justice Department sources say the Voting Section is also considering whether to sue a Mississippi locality that has an African-American majority. Such a lawsuit would be the first use of a key section of the Voting Rights Act to protect the rights of white voters.

The main business of the Voting Section is still passing judgment on legislative redistricting in areas that have a history of discrimination. Under Ashcroft, its actions have consistently favored Republicans—for instance, in Georgia, where the department challenged the Democrats’ gerrymander, and in Mississippi, where the Voting Section stalled the redistricting process for so long that a pro-Republican redistricting plan went into effect by default. The Voting Section’s role in the controversial redistricting of Texas was more direct and, ultimately, more significant. After the 2000 census, Texas, like most states, put through a new redistricting plan. Then, after the midterm elections, Tom DeLay, the House Majority Leader, who is from Houston, engineered passage of a revised congressional redistricting plan through the state legislature, which may mean a shift of as many as seven seats from the Democrats to the Republicans. It was unprecedented for a state to make a second redistricting plan after a post-census plan had been adopted. When the DeLay plan was submitted to the Justice Department for approval, career officials in the Voting Section produced an internal legal opinion of seventy-three pages, with seventeen hundred and fifty pages of supporting documents, arguing that the plan should be rejected as a retrogression of minority rights. However, according to people familiar with the deliberations, the political staff of the Voting Section exercised its right to overrule that decision and approved the DeLay plan, which is now in effect for the 2004 elections.==

But what many of us here would like is FFF's comments on Ashcroft's treatment of gay employees at the Justice Department last year:

==Washington -- Attorney General John Ashcroft ignited a new controversy over his agency's treatment of gays and lesbians Friday after he refused to allow Justice Department employees to hold an annual event celebrating "gay pride month" at the agency's headquarters.

Justice Department officials told DOJ Pride, a group of almost 200 gay and lesbian agency employees, it could not stage the event at the department's Pennsylvania Avenue building later this month because President Bush -- unlike his predecessor, former President Bill Clinton -- has not issued a proclamation designating June as gay pride month.

The decision drew immediate praise from conservative groups, who believe such events on federal property are an attempt to legitimize homosexuality.

But gay and lesbian groups and some Democratic lawmakers said Ashcroft's decision was discriminatory because other employee associations, including ethnic employee groups, are allowed to hold similar events at the agency's headquarters.

"It's shocking that the agency in charge of protecting the civil rights of all Americans is singling out one group of people for unequal treatment," said David Smith, spokesman for the Human Rights Campaign, the nation's largest gay and lesbian advocacy group. "It sends a very chilling message to gay and lesbian employees that says, 'You are not welcome.' "

Conservative groups had lobbied Ashcroft to bar the gay pride event after a similar gathering was held last year in the Great Hall, at which Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson, the agency's No. 2 official, spoke to about 150 employees.

"Homosexuality is immoral and dangerous behavior, and taxpayers should not be forced to subsidize its promotion," said Sandy Rios, president of Concerned Women for America. "I am so grateful that Attorney General Ashcroft has taken a courageous step to stand against the pressure of the politically correct elite."

Critics said Ashcroft's decision appeared to undermine a pledge he made during his Senate confirmation hearings. During a Judiciary Committee hearing in January 2001, he was asked by Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., whether he would allow DOJ Pride the same access to Justice Department facilities as members of other employee groups.

Ashcroft replied: "It would be my intention not to discriminate against any group that appropriately constituted in the Department of Justice." In response to written questions from Feingold, Ashcroft later added, "I have no intent to change those policies or treat this group differently than any other. "

blahblahblah

ANSWER MY QUESTION!

What has he done that has DIRECTLY affected YOUR life. Don't do a "Rick Munroe" and cut and paste stuff.

Talk about YOURSELF.

Repeatedly yours,

FFF

>blahblahblah

>

>ANSWER MY QUESTION!

>

>What has he done that has DIRECTLY affected YOUR life. Don't

>do a "Rick Munroe" and cut and paste stuff.

"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

-- John Donne

To most of y'all who don't live in this area, yeah, I suppose that Tom DeLay comes from Houston. To those of us in Houston, he comes from Sugar Land. A different municipality, although in the same county. Pickypicky, but to those of us who would give our eye teeth for a chance to vote him out of office ....

>Don't

>do a "Rick Munroe" and cut and paste stuff.

It's actually "copy and paste," not "cut and paste." I guess you just pulled a Fin Fang Foom and got it wrong again. :7

>"Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in

>Mankind; And therefore never send to know for whom the bell

>tolls; it tolls for thee."

> -- John Donne

Who did John Ashcroft kill?

And where was your oh-so-profound concern for the deaths of all human beings when it came time to get rid of that murderous, psychopathic dictator in Iraq who slaugthered his citizens by the hundreds of thousands?

If you had your way, he would still be slaughtering his citizens at that rate, until one of his lovely sons took over for him and slaugthered millions more.

How come their bells didn't toll for thee?

I know Rick Munroe does this all the time but in this instance it's much easier.

This appeared on NRO a few years ago debunking the urban myth about Ashcroft and naked statue.............

Ashcroft with Horns

The war aside, this AG has been swimming in bad raps. Maybe the baddest of them all has been Breastgate. Surely you are familiar with the statues that live in the Great Hall of the Justice Department: the Spirit of Justice (a lady) and the Majesty of Law (a gent). (Spirit has a nickname, by the way: Minnie Lou.) Because these statues are partially nude, they are noticed only during conservative Republican administrations. Minnie Lou and her one exposed breast became famous when photographers gleefully took their picture with Ed Meese, as he announced President Reagan's report on pornography back in the mid 1980s. The presence of the Breast was thought to have "stepped on" the administration's "message." Washington liberals are still yukking about that one today.

The Breast was pretty quiet during the eight years of Janet Reno. As one peeved administration official puts it, "No cameraman was ever at Reno's feet, trying to get a shot of her with that thing." But Minnie Lou's outstanding feature stormed back with Ashcroft. When President Bush visited the Justice Department to rededicate the building to Robert Kennedy, his advance men insisted on a nice blue backdrop: "TV blue," infinitely preferable to the usual dingy background of the Great Hall. Everyone thought the backdrop worked nicely — made for "good visuals," as they say. This was Deaverism, pure and simple. Ashcroft's people intended to keep using it.

An advance woman on his team had the bright idea of buying the backdrop: It would be cheaper than renting it repeatedly. So she did — without Ashcroft's knowledge, without his permission, without his caring, everyone in the department insists.

But ABC put out the story that Ashcroft, the old prude, had wanted the Breast covered up, so much did it offend his churchly sensibilities. New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, ever clever, wrote that Ashcroft had forced a "blue burka" on Minnie Lou. Comedians had a field day (and are still having it). The Washington Post has devoted great space to the story, letting Cher, for example, tee off on it — as she went on to do on David Letterman's show.

And yet the story is complete and total bunk. First, Ashcroft had nothing to do with the purchase of the backdrop. Second, the backdrop had nothing to do with Breast aversion. But the story was just "too good to check," as we say, and it will probably live forever. Generations from now, if we're reading about John Ashcroft, we will read that he was the boob who draped the Boob. The story is ineffaceable.

One would pray that this would put this urban myth to rest, but I know it won't.

Wistfully yours,

FFF

>One would pray that this would put this urban myth to rest,

>but I know it won't.

>

>Wistfully yours,

>

>FFF

Not as long as people like you keep bringing it up, to distract attention from the evil to the trivial.