MetaFilter posts tagged with Ashcroft

Let the Eagle Soak

orthogonality — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 19:09:34 -0800

John Ashcroft stands up to prove waterboarding isn't torture, by offering to lie down for his own waterboarding. Well, that is, he offers he'd do it if it were necessary, and if he could survive the torture. Is that a brave offer, an admission that US has resulted in deaths, or both? Daniel Levin, one of Ashcroft's subordinates at the Department of Justice, went further, actually undergoing waterboarding himself. He survived it -- but his career didn't, after he he concluded torture was "abhorrent". Is John Ashcroft sincere? My respect for him greatly increased after he rejected authorizing an illegal form of surveillance despite being hounded on his sick-bed by Alberto Gonzales, and many people (including me) believe him to be an honorable man. So let's see what he has to say after being waterboarded. Or would even former Attorney General John Ashcroft "admit" to being an Al-Qaeda during the waterboarding, just to get it to stop?

"I am not the attorney general. That's the attorney general."

orthogonality — Wed, 16 May 2007 02:54:48 -0800

Comey made frantic calls to his own chief of staff and to Robert Mueller, then FBI director, while he raced to the hospital, sirens blasting. He sprinted up the stairs of the hospital to get to Ashcroft's room before Gonzales and Card did. . . . "I couldn't stay if the White House was engaging in conduct that had no legal basis." Comey testifies that there was something of a line to resign that day: Mueller; then Comey's chief of staff; and then Ashcroft's chief of staff—who asked only that Comey wait until "Ashcroft was well enough to resign with me."

A ~~Saturday Night~~ Tuesday Morning Massacre narrowly averted by an illness and the Madrid Train Bombings? Is it a High Crime and Misdemeanor if "the president was quite willing to forge ahead with an illegal program"?
Absoluelty riveting, it reads like a tale out of paperback thriller: in a darkened hospital room, a White House consigliere barges past the sick man's wife, and demands the disoriented Attorney General official sign a paper.
"First, they tried to coerce a man in intensive care -- a man so sick he had transferred the reins of power to Mr. Comey -- to grant them legal approval. Having failed, they were willing to defy the conclusions of the nation's chief law enforcement officer and pursue the surveillance without Justice's authorization." I'm waiting for the movie, but you can watch the video now.

Supreme Court upholds Oregon's assisted suicide law.

monju_bosatsu — Tue, 17 Jan 2006 09:51:13 -0800

Supreme Court upholds Oregon's assisted suicide law. Justice Kenedy wrote the opinion for the majority, concluding that Ashcroft did not have the authority to sanction doctors under the Controlled Substances Act. Justice Scalia dissented, joined by Justice Thomas and Chief Justice Roberts. Thomas also wrote a separate dissent. The Washington Post has the opinions, and you can get the pdf from the Supreme Court's website.

Let the Eagle Soar

Otis — Sun, 26 Jun 2005 06:29:11 -0800

The Boob is back at the Department of Justice. The Ashcroft curtain has come down and the "Spirit of Justice" statue, commissioned from sculptor C. Paul Jennewein, can once again supply her breast for ironic photos.

You're an Ashcroft! No, you're the Ashcroft!

grateful — Thu, 24 Feb 2005 11:08:42 -0800

You're an Ashcroft! No, you're the Ashcroft! Some airline passengers watching the Oscar-nominated film "Sideways" on foreign flights are, in fact, hearing Ashcroft as a substitute for a certain seven-letter epithet commonly used to denote a human orifice.

My new hero

boo — Fri, 31 Dec 2004 09:09:02 -0800

DOJ coup d'etat. Ashcroft is gone. Now, six days before the confirmation hearings of Alberto Gonzales, the acting Attorney General, Daniel Levin, issues a new official memo (pdf)on torture, reversing and specifically repudiating the definitions of torture from the August 2002 memo addressed to Gonzales. The new memo states, among other things,

'we disagree with statements in the August 2002 Memorandum limiting "severe" pain under the statute to "excruciating and agonizing" pain [...] or to pain "equivalent in intensity to the pain accompanying serious physical injury, such as organ failure, impairment of bodily function, or even death'

NotintheNewsFilter

jpoulos — Tue, 22 Jun 2004 10:36:32 -0800

Not-in-the-NewsFilter "Is Mr. Ashcroft neglecting real threats to the public because of his ideological biases?" Paul Krugman on the case of William Krar, a terrorist the justice department isn't talking about.

Doom and Sta-Puff

moonbird — Wed, 09 Jun 2004 16:12:52 -0800

"The Ashcroft Fear Remix." (a potential summer mini-blockbuster)
[link goes to broadband and dialup option for Quicktime movie file]

Ashcroft's terror warning

gfrobe — Sat, 29 May 2004 08:03:59 -0800

One of Ashcroft's "credible sources" from last week's terror warning came from Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades, a group that has also claimed responsibility for the blackout in the Northeast last year, the power outage in London, the Madrid bombing and has been called "notoriously unreliable" by U.S. officials. “The only thing they haven't claimed credit for recently is the cicada invasion of Washington". Ashcroft blames the FBI who have admitted that claims that terrorists were 90 percent ready to attack came not from al-Qaida, but from the Abu Hafs al-Masri Brigades’ statements.

How I Lost the Big One

ericost — Wed, 03 Mar 2004 00:53:18 -0800

How I Lost the Big One Lawrence Lessig on losing Eldred v. Ashcroft: "We had in our Constitution a commitment to free culture. In the case that I fathered, the Supreme Court effectively renounced that commitment. A better lawyer would have made them see differently."

I hear Osama likes anchovies on his.

Vidiot — Mon, 29 Dec 2003 13:47:20 -0800

Paris Hilton and John Ashcroft are #1 and #2, respectively, on the list of fake names used by people ordering pizza. In other news, people with Dean bumper stickers on their car tip more than those with Bush bumper stickers. And 42 percent of Americans will have pizza on New Year's Eve, while only 2 percent will have caviar. (All this courtesy of a Domino's Pizza survey.)

Ashcroft and FBI not doing enough to fight domestic terrorism.

skallas — Mon, 15 Dec 2003 04:47:06 -0800

Ashcroft and FBI not doing enough to fight domestic terrorism. More information on the Krar posion gas plot at thememoryhole.org.

Department of Justice... Ha!

Ignatius J. Reilly — Thu, 02 Oct 2003 10:48:56 -0800

Attorney General Is Closely Linked to Inquiry Figures Karl Rove, President Bush (news - web sites)'s top political adviser, whose possible role in the case has raised questions, was a paid consultant to three of Mr. Ashcroft's campaigns in Missouri, twice for governor and for United States senator, in the 1980's and 1990's, an associate of Mr. Rove said on Wednesday. Jack Oliver, the deputy finance chairman of Mr. Bush's 2004 re-election campaign, was the director of Mr. Ashcroft's 1994 Senate campaign, and later worked as Mr. Ashcroft's deputy chief of staff. No wonder 69% of Americans think that an independent counsel should conduct the investigation.

Ashcroft Vs The Librarians

Blake — Thu, 18 Sep 2003 06:19:15 -0800

After calling our concerns Hysteria and saying we've been Duped by those who are ideologically opposed to the Patriot Act, Ashcroft Now Says the FBI has not sought a single record from a library or business under a part of the Patriot Act widely criticized as opening Americans' reading habits or personal information to undue government scrutiny.
After a Phone Call to the Head of the American Library Assoc, he promised to declassify a report on how often the agency has sought information from public libraries under the USA Patriot Act.
Congressman Bernie Sanders Says who has authored legislation that would amend section 215 of the USA Patriot Act, welcomed reports today that Attorney General Ashcroft, after months of pressure from Congress and national civil liberty and privacy organizations, has agreed to disclose to the public how Section 215 has been used.

It's getting hot in here....

Espoo2 — Thu, 11 Sep 2003 00:49:22 -0800

Greenpeace obtains smoking-gun memo: White House/Exxon link Did conservative elements in the White House provoke an Exxon front group to sue EPA to suppress a report on climate change? That's the question that two State Attorney Generals have asked US Attorney General John Ashcroft to investigate, after Greenpeace uncovered a routine email in a Freedom of Information Act request.

Baby, I Want Your Medical Records!

homunculus — Tue, 09 Sep 2003 17:06:17 -0800

Two Years After 9/11: Ashcroft’s Assault on the Constitution. "Under the direction of Attorney General John Ashcroft, the Department of Justice has undermined the constitutional rights of all Americans as it has prosecuted a war on terrorism since the September 11, 2001 attacks, according to a new report released today by People For the American Way Foundation" [via TalkLeft.] On the bright side, I hear the Patriot Act Summer Tour rocked [flash.]

Victory Gin, Anyone? Perhaps a Victory Cigarette?

grabbingsand — Fri, 08 Aug 2003 08:32:20 -0800

Ashcroft's Victory Act? I can't find any other mention of it on the mighty Web, but a handful of left-leaning sites are linking back to this article in the NY Daily News. Is this a renaming of the impending sequel to the PATRIOT Act? And if so, does anyone else find the use of the word "Victory" as creepy as I do?

Ashcroft's Very Chocolate Brownies

PrinceValium — Mon, 16 Dec 2002 04:02:49 -0800

"Eat ye that which is good and let your soul delight itself in fatness." Can John Ashcroft find salvation in a recipe for chocolate brownies? Hey, every little bit helps.

Not Just Whistling Dixie

jonp72 — Sun, 15 Dec 2002 17:39:49 -0800

The neo-Confederacy movement is a potent force in the Republican Party in today's South, as Trent Lott's comments about Strom Thurmond demonstrate. Trent Lott has neo-Confederate ties, as does John Ashcroft who praised Jefferson Davis in an interview with the Southern Partisan magazine. Associated with the United Daughters of the Confederacy and the Sons of Confederate Veterans, adherents of the neo-Confederate movement can even buy T-shirts gloating transforming the Republican Party into Abraham Lincoln's worst nightmare.

The John Ashcroft Snow Globe

condour75 — Fri, 13 Dec 2002 00:06:01 -0800

The John Ashcroft Snow Globe. Make your own punch line. Other merchandise on the site includes a literal Bible Belt, and what I believe to be Newt Gingrich underoos of some sort.

tom tomorrow

serafinapekkala — Tue, 03 Dec 2002 11:10:35 -0800

Total Information Awareness v. Holden Caulfield. Great Tom Tomorrow cartoon on our new "permanent records" under Ashcroft's plan. What books did you check out of the library as a teenage "malcontent" that might arouse suspicion today?

KEEP BIG BROTHER'S HANDS OFF THE INTERNET

Postroad — Mon, 25 Nov 2002 10:32:12 -0800

KEEP BIG BROTHER'S HANDS OFF THE INTERNET Ashcroft as Senator! That was then. This is now. Does it still apply?

Secret U.S. court OKs electronic spying

Dok Millennium — Tue, 19 Nov 2002 02:29:47 -0800

Secret U.S. court OKs electronic spying Big Brother much? John Ashcroft is well on his way to becoming the next J. Edgar Hoover, or worse. The government can already secretly spy on what books we're reading, thanks to the Patriot Act. Previous MeFi threads have covered the evils of Total Information Awareness and how it makes everyone a suspect. Now a "secret court" gives the government a green light to spy while the ACLU tried to figure out if there is any recourse.

BentPenguin — Thu, 07 Nov 2002 13:20:00 -0800

The Patriot Act. Ashcrft's TIPS program. FBI surveying your Public Library consumption history. Freedom in America isn't what it used to be, and in most cases, the changes have been foisted on the public, sans referendum.
Have you heard the name Lt. General Michael V. Hayden before? Probably not. Probably cuz he's king spook. aka Director fo the National Security Agency.
Here's a transcript of his testimony before congress about pre and post 9/11 national security issues.
Its a really scary read. Why? Because his assessment comes across as more level headed, even handed and realistic on this prime topic than the President and everyone in congress put together. (YMMV)
Who'd a thunkit?
Briefly, he tells Congress "that they can best help him by going back to their constituents and finding out where the public wants to draw the line between liberty and safety.” More importantly, he talks to the people about security, not at them. Where's the line gotta be? [found on /.]

jewishbuddha — Fri, 04 Oct 2002 09:28:44 -0800

The Supreme Court begins its term this coming Monday. There are lots of exciting cases on the calendar (99k PDF). For example, Ewing v. California, which will test California's 3 strikes rule. Scheidler v. NOW, which has to do with anti-abortion activists blocking access to clinics. And of course, Eldred v. Ashcroft, where the issue is whether or not the 1998 Sonny Bono Copyright Term Extension Act (PDF) is Constitutional. The last has been mentioned in a couple threads and has gotten loads of web attention, including this new piece from WIRED. A lot to look forward to, whether you're interested in one of the specific issues or you're just an avid armchair justice.