This doesn't comfort me

I suppose I shouldn't be surprised that John Ashcroft wasn't interested in terrorism, when there's so many other things to deal with. Like boobies. Boobies everywhere, including in the grand hall of the Justice Department, which he must cover with a blue curtain so nobody can see boobies and become corrupted. But surely boobies didn't take up all of his time.

Ashcroft's Efforts on Terrorism Criticized (washingtonpost.com):The former acting director of the FBI testified yesterday that Attorney General John D. Ashcroft rejected any further briefings on terrorist threats in the weeks before the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and did not view combating al Qaeda as 'a top item on his agenda.'

Thomas J. Pickard, who ran the FBI for several months before the attacks, also told the commission investigating the terrorist strikes that Ashcroft rejected a plea that summer for an extra $58 million to combat al Qaeda. Pickard testified that he received the formal denial on Sept. 12, 2001, the day after the attacks.

Ashcroft went too far in his defense, though.

Ashcroft sought to blame the Clinton administration for many of the shortcomings in counterterrorism strategies before the attacks, taking the unusual step of publicly citing the work of a Democratic member of the commission, Jamie S. Gorelick, who served as a deputy attorney general in the Clinton administration. Ashcroft announced the declassification and release of a 1995 memo she wrote that outlined legal rules on sharing intelligence information, characterizing the guidelines as "the single greatest structural cause for the September 11th problem."

He declassified a memo to discredit a member of the commission. Think about this for a minute. Back with me? Good. The Bush administration outed a covert operations person, Valerie Plame, to discredit her husband, Joe Wilson, who made the administration uncomfortable. Bill Frist asked for the declassification of Richard Clarke's testimony to discredit him. Now John "holy roller" Ashcroft declassifies a memo to discredit another person who is in a position to shine the light of truth around on this administration.

These people don't care about classified material, and things that should be genuine secrets. They only care about covering their own asses, and when they don't need secrecy to do that, they abuse the system for short-run political gains.

Oh, and if you hear Ashcroft say that he based his goals on those of Janet Reno, well, check this out:

One day after telling the Senate that combating terrorist attacks was his highest priority, Ashcroft issued a memo on May 10, 2001, outlining the Justice Department's strategic goals that contained no mention of counterterrorism. Dale Watson, the FBI's terrorism chief at the time, told the commission staff that he "almost fell out of his chair" when he read it.

Ashcroft said he based his memo on a strategic plan issued by former attorney general Janet Reno, although he acknowledged that the original included several goals relating to terrorism.

This man, John Ashcroft, is no friend of the United States. He is no friend of freedom, or the truth. He has never cared about individual freedoms as long as his beliefs in God and guns are not threatened. Impeach John Ashcroft now.