ESSAY
"John Ashcroft"

Categories

Reshma Khilnani

March 18, 2003

World

National

Politics

Law

Technology

Government

Terrorism

Excerpt (first and last two sentences)
"In one of my attempted letters to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle in March 2001 I, interestingly enough, found a reference to current attorney general John Ashcroft:  “Mr. Ashcroft is a man without conviction or purpose.  He lacks the tenacity and fire of former attorney general Janet Reno.  He only seems concerned about two issues: denying women the right to choose, and making sure every American can own assault weapons.” Now in 2003, I can only wish that my assessment were true....
...
This ideological shift in the Justice department from transparent and bureaucratic to secret and efficient is very alarming.  In my opinion this shift is much more significant and scary than the Mr. Ashcroft’s pension for guns, her prosecution of “medical marijuana” users in California, his push to have every capital crime punished by the death penalty, and his attack on Roe v. Wade."

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