Ashcroft again? Who lifted the rock?

If there is one man that encapsulates the lackluster Bush response to terrorism it's John Ashcroft in the spring and summer of 2001. He was handed a disciplined and focused anti-terrorism effort and did his best to dismantle it in the months preceding 9/11. His idiotic focus on prostitution, bongs, and naked tits on statues at the expense of chasing terrorists hurt the country badly. He needs to crawl back into his hole. I apologize for the length of this rant, but Ashcroft represents the worst our country has to offer... Well, the worst list is pretty long, but Ashcroft and Hastert are both on it.

How about this?

"...just before the Sept. 11 attacks, Ashcroft did not agree to $588 million in increases that the FBI was seeking for 2003. That request included funds to hire 54 translators and 248 counterterrorism agents and support staff...

Other documents indicate that before Sept. 11, Ashcroft did not give terrorism top billing in his strategic plans for the Justice Department, which includes the FBI. A draft of Ashcroft's "Strategic Plan" from Aug. 9, 2001, does not put fighting terrorism as one of the department's seven goals, ranking it as a sub-goal beneath gun violence and drugs. After the attacks, fighting terrorism became the department's primary goal. By contrast, in April 2000, Ashcroft's predecessor, Janet Reno, called terrorism "the most challenging threat in the criminal justice area."

Or this?

...During his testimony, Pickard confirmed the commission's report that after he briefed Ashcroft twice on terrorist threats during the summer of 2001, "the attorney general told him he did not want to hear this information anymore," according to the findings. Pickard indicated concern about the May 10, 2001, memo that included no counterterrorism strategies...

Or this CBS report from July 26, 2001?

Aschroft flying high (CBS) Fishing rod in hand, Attorney General John Ashcroft left on a weekend trip to Missouri Thursday afternoon aboard a chartered government jet, reports CBS News Correspondent Jim Stewart.

In response to inquiries from CBS News over why Ashcroft was traveling exclusively by leased jet aircraft instead of commercial airlines, the Justice Department cited what it called a "threat assessment" by the FBI, and said Ashcroft has been advised to travel only by private jet for the remainder of his term.

Or this?

From April to September 2001, the FBI ran a wiretap on the Knock (N) Shop, a brothel in New Orleans, then busted the prostitutes in a federal crackdown. Missouri's Jefferson City News Tribune declares in a June 9, 2002, article that this "brothel investigation has some wondering why the FBI made a federal case out of it." The paper then asks, "Why [are] the FBI and federal prosecutors so interested in prostitution, a crime normally left to the local district attorney?" According to Senator Tom Daschle (Democrat, South Dakota): "If the FBI can spend resources investigating whether there is prostitution in New Orleans, they ought to be able to find the resources to investigate what happened in this country prior to 9/11."

The 9/11 report does it all in better detail, but I see Aschroft as Bush's first "Mike Brown" appointment. He had all the credentials he needed, but none of the insight or sectarian character needed.

In conclusion (for now) I offer this retrospective...In which I quote myself bloviating about Ashcroft all the way back on Monday, February 24, 2003

Please will someone take this Ashcroft lunatic out to the woodshed and demonstrate the proper application of irresistible force with a 2x4 on his ass. On Friday he's busting a domestic terrorist who happened to pose for pictures with President Bush. On Monday he's busy busting bongs. Meanwhile, Osama bong Laden is still on the loose, war is ready to break out in Iraq, and the FBI is probably hunting down hookers in New Orleans again.

On the homeland front, smallpox vaccinations are racing ahead at 1% of the planned rate. I know from all my goal planning that achieving 1% wouldn't get me rave notices from my boss, but Tommy Thompson and Tom Ridge seem to be soldiering on as if everything is fine. It's fine for Bush to be a compassionate conservative, but I didn't think the definition was hiring incompetent Republicans to key security positions. Please will someone smack Tommy Thompson, John Ashcroft, and Tom Ridge upside the head and tell them to straighten up and get their shit together. They are the Three Stooges of the Bushalypse. If we weren't in a Bush-triggered crisis moment it might be funny, but when the President lines up all his duckies on the border of Iraq and asks these three if they are ready to go, it's not going to be a joke for the American people who depend on them to have a clue.

I'll save my biggest scorn for Ashcroft who took time out to diss Janet Reno for neglecting to bust enough bong makers when she was in office. In a moment that calls for thoughtful and visionary politicians, we end up with the tit-fearing terror. This marauder against states rights and civil liberties. Thispontificating baritone who prejudges guilt and stages media events to showcase his commitment to idiocy and premature expostulation. There's an old saying that people deserve the politicians they elect. How cruel it is then, that the loser of the Presidential popular vote appointed the loser of a Senate race to oversee crime and punishment. We didn't deserve this.

Oh, and John. If you stick your head out again, I've got plenty more archives where these came from.
posted by Dave on 8:04 AM | 0 comments link

--------------------