A lot has been said about Attorney General John Ashcroft in the past several months. His decision to detain hundreds of immigrants in connection with the probe of the Twin Towers tragedy, along with the "voluntary" questioning of thousands of men from mostly Middle Eastern countries, has provoked tens of thousands of column inches in papers around the globe.
But who is John Ashcroft? We know from his biography that he was the son of a Pentecostal minister, graduated from Yale, then studied and became a lawyer at Chicago University Law School, where he met and married his wife Janice. We also know that he first ran for public office in 1972 at age 30, narrowly losing the Republican primary in a congressional race, but was appointed Missouri state auditor the following year and was subsequently elected state attorney general in 1976 and again in 1980. In 1984 he was elected governor of Missouri, and won re-election in 1988.
Following his second gubernatorial term, he practiced law until 1994, when he successfully ran for US Senator. His bid for re-election in 2000 failed, despite his opponent, Gov. Mel Carnahan, having died in a plane crash three weeks before the election.
The policies he has worked for in his public life have riled the left while embracing the right, especially religious conservatives: he is pro-death penalty, antiabortion, pro-racial profiling, antiwelfare. He claims to be a lawmans lawman, and when he was nominated for the attorney-general slot by President George W. Bush, he called the position "the big kahuna." In explaining his choice, Bush commented that Ashcroft "will be faithful to the law, pursuing justice without favor He will enforce the law and he will follow the truth."
Those are marvelous traits for any lawman, particularly the highest in the land. Unfortunately, they are not necessarily traits possessed by John Ashcroft.
There is only one thing anyone needs to really know about John Ashcroft and his belief in the spirit and letter of the law, regardless of where one falls on his public positions. And that is that John Ashcroft believes the law applies best when applied by John Ashcroft.
The story begins in the late 1980s, when every policing agency in the US was hog wild over property forfeiture. Laws passed in the mid-80s had created a situation where policing agencies were permitted to keep a large portion of the revenues raised by the sale of forfeited goods. Not individually, of course, but to further the War on Drugs.
The conflict of interest built into the new laws didnt seem to bother lawmen, who began seizing property from civilians almost willy-nilly. Someone has an open beer can in the car? Seize the car, sell it at auction and guarantee another 20 hours of overtime for each man on the force. A drug dog sniffs cocaine on the paper money in someones wallet? Seize the money and divvy it up into new cruisers for the squad. (The Pittsburgh Press and others later began testing paper money, and discovered that at the time more than 90% of all US $10s and $20s had trace amounts of cocaine on them.) It got so bad for a couple of years that in 1990 there was more than half a billion dollars in the federal forfeiture pipeline alone.
Missouri, like every state feeling the fiscal pinch of the late 80s, jumped on the forfeiture bandwagon and made hay with farmers growing a pot plant or two in their gardens. Farms, houses, cars, boats, and anything that could be accused of being the fruit of a crime were subsequently forfeited. But Missouri, it turned out, had a peculiar article in its constitution, declaring that all proceeds from forfeitures had to go into the state school budget. And it didnt take too many years for some of the states more savvy defense attorneys, properly shamed at the prosecutions greed, to point that legal impediment to more overtime out to the public.
Now almost any rational person would understand that the reason that legal proviso was written was precisely to prevent police agencies from going after the forfeiture buck for their own benefit. Moreover, giving the monies raised by property forfeiture to a poor school system was an ideal way to improve schooling without additional taxation.
Not to John Ashcroft, then governor. When the Missouri judicial system upheld the state constitution, he decided to get around it by declaring that in every instance possible, prior to the execution of a forfeiture, a federal agent be brought onto the scene to make the actual forfeiture. It meant sharing the forfeiture wealth with the Feds, but it also meant that his state and local police and prosecutors would get the customary 20-40% cut of those funds provided under federal policy. And that the state school system, desperately poor, would be cut out altogether.
Which gives us insight into the heart of John Ashcroft: He is a man who will follow the law until he wants to circumvent it. And that is neither truthful nor honest. It certainly isnt what anyone wants in a lawman, particularly the highest lawman in the land.
Or, to paraphrase Bushs description of him: Ashcroft will be faithful to the law as long as it suits him, pursuing justice without favor unless he must choose between the police and school kids. He will enforce the law as he sees fit and he will follow the truth as he deems it.
OPINION: All You Really Need To Know About John Ashcroft
www.hightimes.com/News/20...inion.html
By Peter Gorman
Other Newz
IDAHOS PRISON LABOR SCANDAL
More Trouble With the Prisoner-for-Profit Scheme
www.hightimes.com/News/20...idaho.html
WORLD WAR III REPORT #14
A Continuing Series of Reports on the War in Afghanistan
www.hightimes.com/News/20...www14.html
Why The Rescheduling of Marijuana Brief
www.hightimes.com/News/2002_01/why.html
UPDATE: RAINBOW FARM REPORT
www.hightimes.com/News/20...inbow.html
High Times
www.hightimes.com
Ashcraft/Dow\Monsanto Spraying Ditchweed Devastate Midwest Game Birds
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingc...=222.topic
F.E.A.R.
www.fear.org
Cops Against The Drug War
drcnet.org/cops
VCL- Lawyers and Judges against the drug war
vcl.org
F.A.M.M.
www.famm.org
But who is John Ashcroft? We know from his biography that he was the son of a Pentecostal minister, graduated from Yale, then studied and became a lawyer at Chicago University Law School, where he met and married his wife Janice. We also know that he first ran for public office in 1972 at age 30, narrowly losing the Republican primary in a congressional race, but was appointed Missouri state auditor the following year and was subsequently elected state attorney general in 1976 and again in 1980. In 1984 he was elected governor of Missouri, and won re-election in 1988.
Following his second gubernatorial term, he practiced law until 1994, when he successfully ran for US Senator. His bid for re-election in 2000 failed, despite his opponent, Gov. Mel Carnahan, having died in a plane crash three weeks before the election.
The policies he has worked for in his public life have riled the left while embracing the right, especially religious conservatives: he is pro-death penalty, antiabortion, pro-racial profiling, antiwelfare. He claims to be a lawmans lawman, and when he was nominated for the attorney-general slot by President George W. Bush, he called the position "the big kahuna." In explaining his choice, Bush commented that Ashcroft "will be faithful to the law, pursuing justice without favor He will enforce the law and he will follow the truth."
Those are marvelous traits for any lawman, particularly the highest in the land. Unfortunately, they are not necessarily traits possessed by John Ashcroft.
There is only one thing anyone needs to really know about John Ashcroft and his belief in the spirit and letter of the law, regardless of where one falls on his public positions. And that is that John Ashcroft believes the law applies best when applied by John Ashcroft.
The story begins in the late 1980s, when every policing agency in the US was hog wild over property forfeiture. Laws passed in the mid-80s had created a situation where policing agencies were permitted to keep a large portion of the revenues raised by the sale of forfeited goods. Not individually, of course, but to further the War on Drugs.
The conflict of interest built into the new laws didnt seem to bother lawmen, who began seizing property from civilians almost willy-nilly. Someone has an open beer can in the car? Seize the car, sell it at auction and guarantee another 20 hours of overtime for each man on the force. A drug dog sniffs cocaine on the paper money in someones wallet? Seize the money and divvy it up into new cruisers for the squad. (The Pittsburgh Press and others later began testing paper money, and discovered that at the time more than 90% of all US $10s and $20s had trace amounts of cocaine on them.) It got so bad for a couple of years that in 1990 there was more than half a billion dollars in the federal forfeiture pipeline alone.
Missouri, like every state feeling the fiscal pinch of the late 80s, jumped on the forfeiture bandwagon and made hay with farmers growing a pot plant or two in their gardens. Farms, houses, cars, boats, and anything that could be accused of being the fruit of a crime were subsequently forfeited. But Missouri, it turned out, had a peculiar article in its constitution, declaring that all proceeds from forfeitures had to go into the state school budget. And it didnt take too many years for some of the states more savvy defense attorneys, properly shamed at the prosecutions greed, to point that legal impediment to more overtime out to the public.
Now almost any rational person would understand that the reason that legal proviso was written was precisely to prevent police agencies from going after the forfeiture buck for their own benefit. Moreover, giving the monies raised by property forfeiture to a poor school system was an ideal way to improve schooling without additional taxation.
Not to John Ashcroft, then governor. When the Missouri judicial system upheld the state constitution, he decided to get around it by declaring that in every instance possible, prior to the execution of a forfeiture, a federal agent be brought onto the scene to make the actual forfeiture. It meant sharing the forfeiture wealth with the Feds, but it also meant that his state and local police and prosecutors would get the customary 20-40% cut of those funds provided under federal policy. And that the state school system, desperately poor, would be cut out altogether.
Which gives us insight into the heart of John Ashcroft: He is a man who will follow the law until he wants to circumvent it. And that is neither truthful nor honest. It certainly isnt what anyone wants in a lawman, particularly the highest lawman in the land.
Or, to paraphrase Bushs description of him: Ashcroft will be faithful to the law as long as it suits him, pursuing justice without favor unless he must choose between the police and school kids. He will enforce the law as he sees fit and he will follow the truth as he deems it.
OPINION: All You Really Need To Know About John Ashcroft
www.hightimes.com/News/20...inion.html
By Peter Gorman
Other Newz
IDAHOS PRISON LABOR SCANDAL
More Trouble With the Prisoner-for-Profit Scheme
www.hightimes.com/News/20...idaho.html
WORLD WAR III REPORT #14
A Continuing Series of Reports on the War in Afghanistan
www.hightimes.com/News/20...www14.html
Why The Rescheduling of Marijuana Brief
www.hightimes.com/News/2002_01/why.html
UPDATE: RAINBOW FARM REPORT
www.hightimes.com/News/20...inbow.html
High Times
www.hightimes.com
Ashcraft/Dow\Monsanto Spraying Ditchweed Devastate Midwest Game Birds
pub3.ezboard.com/fendingc...=222.topic
F.E.A.R.
www.fear.org
Cops Against The Drug War
drcnet.org/cops
VCL- Lawyers and Judges against the drug war
vcl.org
F.A.M.M.
www.famm.org
