July 26, 2003
Ashcroft to House: "Fuck you!"
Unsurprisingly, Ashcroft is seething about the amendment passed by the House of Representatives a couple of days ago: "Justice Department decries 'terrorist tipoff' amendment."
The department sent a four-page unsigned letter on Friday to House Speaker Dennis Hastert, which signaled it intends to fight the congressional effort to dismiss the law that allows delayed notification of search warrants in certain cases.
Emphasis mine. Unsigned, eh? So Ashcroft is not only a bully, he's a coward as well. That's not surprising either, I suppose, since bullies are typically cowards.
Ashcroft is using his customary tactic of lying in order to spread fear, uncertainty and doubt in the minds of his opponents:
"The Otter amendment, better termed the terrorist tipoff amendment, would have a devastating effect on our ongoing efforts to detect and prevent terrorism as well as combat other serious crimes," the Justice Department letter said.
The letter to [Speaker of the House Dennis] Hastert, R-Illinois, charged the lawmakers "hastily adopted" the measure "based partly on inaccurate information."
Right. And just what "inaccurate information" would that be?
Justice officials are notably upset about new advertisements from the American Civil Liberties Union that include the assertion the law "allows government agents to secretly search your house and not even tell you."
Unfortunately for Ashcroft, the ACLU assertion is unquestionably true; Section 213 does indeed allow such searches without your knowledge. You are supposed to find out after the fact, but it could possibly be long after. My question: How does this square with the following bit of text:
The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.
In case you're wondering, that's the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution, that piece of paper that adorns the toilet roll in Ashcroft's bathroom.
Finally, to add insult to injury, that CNN Online page also featured one of their little polls, this one asking, "Should law enforcement be allowed to secretly search homes of people suspected of terrorist ties?" Yes or no. The problem was that the poll was broken and was not counting "no" votes. I'm certain of this, because when I saw it, the numbers were 2517 "yes" to zero, yes, zero "no." That "no" number should have been at least one, if only for my vote.
I see that CNN has just taken down the poll, though. Good.