Posted on 07/23/2002 6:07:53 PM PDT by Pokey78
CONSERVATIVES TURN ON ASHCROFT
Tue Jul 23 2002 20:58:38 ET
Many religious conservatives who were instrumental in pressing President Bush to appoint John Ashcroft as attorney general -- now say they have become deeply troubled by his actions, the NEW YORK TIMES is planning to report in a blistering Page One spread on Wednesday.
"His religious base is now quite troubled by what he's done," Grover Norquist tells the TIMES's Neil Lewis.
MORE
Several Bush advisers have begun complaining that Ashcroft has projected himself too often and too forcefully. More significantly, they say privately that he seems to be overstating the evidence of terrorist threats, the paper claims.
Conservtives cite Ashcroft's anti-terrorist positions as enhancing the kind of government power that they instinctively oppose.
Norquist: "If there hadn't been this big government problem, Ashcroft would have been talked about as the Bush successor. Instead, the talk is that 'too bad we pushed for him."'
Ashcroft was also criticized by some in the administration for declaring early on that the case of John Walker Lindh was a major terrorist case, the paper reports. Some officials in the Justice Department believed that the attorney general made needlessly harsh public comments about Lindh. The case came to an abrupt end last week, when Lindh pleaded guilty to two felonies and the department dropped the most severe terrorism-related charges against him, treating him as a far less important figure than depicted by the attorney general.
Developing...
Better watch that attitude, boy, or I won't let you park your sorry pick-up in my backyard when you have to refugee out of Texas after the Great Chicano Uprising of `05....
Likewise, what do you think these people will find in a terrorists residence?
I think people have the notion that the cable guy will stroll in and see an amateur SAM site in their living room or something.
Plus, the whole thing is pretty subjective. If I do the credit card processing and arbitrarily decide that you buy too much gunpowder, do you deserve to have your door kicked in as a result of this?
The potential for abuse is huge and as it is now anyone with a complaint or a concern can call the police and take their whacks if it turns out to be a false report.
Plus, there is some concern about them databasing this information and profiling people based on pure speculation. If your house get's raided on one of these "tips" then do you know who squealed on you? Will your database entry be deleted or cleared? Or will it have a "well, we didn't get him this time" notation tossed in there somewhere? Will the mail carrier get mad and narc on you because you didn't give him a christmas gift? Or because you cut him off in traffic?
That seems to be the gist of it. I'm not in favor a massive government payroll of paid informers but I sure the hell ain't opposed to supplying a website and a telephone number to report guys 18-44, resembling the 20 guys who flew those planes, casing out the local nuclear plant.
I agree. Only those who have something to hide should be afraid of being searched at any time by marginally trained pseudo-police.
Yo, Arlo. You can do that NOW!
RJ, the list of FReepers who disagree with you is almost as long as the list of FReepers who disagree with me.
developing...
I actually defended him when he was clothing naked statues. I wouldn't ncessarily want to be photographed in front of a naked statue either. This TIPS nonsense, is a different story. It has no place in America.
Mine's bigger %^)
Do you actually think that a person sitting at the end of a phone line receiving tips fro American citizens about possible skells trying to kill other American citizens is a bad use of tax money?
He was embarrassed because some reporter got that shot of him with a big boob over his sholder.. So I didn't give him allot of grief over it at the time either.
If I do the credit card processing, I can turn you in for gunpowder purchases NOW.
The hysteria on this site over what amounts to a Neighborhood Watch program is, well, hysterical.
Yes. It is not a legitimate federal power.
Consider the Clinton's having the power of Operation TIPS.
Consider that once you open your door for snoopy repairmen over terrorism, will it necessarily end there?
Just because you have nothing to hide... does that mean that someone might not mention that you had a copy of the Koran (for research) and the latest issue of Guns and Ammo on your end table?
And consider this... raw, unvetted FBI files.
Please show me, where in the constitution, the federal government is granted the power to run a federal neighborhood watch program.
So many here on this forum seem to forget this
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