# Fuckwit Ashcroft Bludgeons Justice **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [August 8, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859 "2003-08-08T17:28:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 5:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/1 "2003-08-08T17:28:12Z")
Noted heap of souless putrescent monkey meat John Ashcroft announced that he wants the Justice Department to report any judges who hand down less than the recommended sentence for crimes. [http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/08/ashcroft.light.sentence.ap/index.html](http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/08/08/ashcroft.light.sentence.ap/index.html) This fucking halfwit would have us return to the political hate and fear climate of the 50s by blacklisting judges who don’t toe his own personal punishment line for offenders. “Mitigation” is apparently not a word in his vocabulary, nor does he seem to grasp the basic concept of plea bargaining. Anyone who has not up to this point gathered the bleeding obvious that Ashcroft is one of the largest dangers to our constitutional liberties should at least be able to acknowledge that this is a really _bad_ idea. Not up there with abridgement of rights under the 4th and 8th amendments (which few on the right seem to give a damn about losing), but a major shafting of the judicial process nonetheless. How this bloodless homophobic horror and parody of a human being continues to hold office, watching over us all with his dead shark-human (and, I suspect, lidless) eyes is beyond me. Perhaps the daily public infusions of rat-blood and kitten brains has Bush so frightened that he doesn’t dare fire this asshole. We can only hope his days are numbered, along with the rest of the flying monkeys in this administration. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 5:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/2 "2003-08-08T17:35:45Z")
Is that even Constitutional? ---
**Author:** ![MmmDonut](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d6d6ee/32.png) [@MmmDonut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MmmDonut)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/3 "2003-08-08T17:43:51Z")
eh, who needs those pesky judges. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/4 "2003-08-08T18:06:28Z")
Chefguy- I dislike, nay, I am repulsed by Ashcroft, however-These changes in laws ad whatnot aren’t his doing. It all comes down from the Federal legislature. Your Congresspeople let these laws pass, Ashcroft is just the mouthpiece. We really ought to be considering our federal representatives more carefully. Sam ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/5 "2003-08-08T18:08:44Z")
While I’m sure it’s probably cathartic to rant against Ashcroft your ire might be misdirected. From the article you linked: > [@](#): > > “It is an effort to make sure that someone who is convicted of a crime in California is treated no differently than a person who is convicted of the exact same crime in Massachusetts,” Corallo said Thursday. > > The sentencing guidelines were developed by the U.S. Sentencing Commission, created by Congress in 1984 to reduce disparities in sentences imposed around the country – subject to some judicial flexibility. > > The memo, first reported by The Wall Street Journal, is part of a Justice Department effort to implement a law passed by Congress earlier this year intended to bring even greater uniformity to federal prison sentences. In other words Ashcroft’s memo is seeking to get data to ensure that a law, passed by Congress and signed by the President, is being enforced. Isn’t this what the whole checks-and-balances and separation-of-powers thing is all about? As noted in the article some disagree with the law, but as far as I could tell no one suggested that Ashcroft is doing anything outside the law or his jurisdiction. Nor is there any suggestion in the article that this will lead to anything like “blacklisting judges who don’t toe his own personal punishment line for offenders”. Then again, this is the Pit, so perhaps my appeal to facts and rational discussion is wasted typing. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/6 "2003-08-08T18:13:42Z")
P.S.-Prosecutors in federal cases keep these records anyways. So in effect, they’d finally be doing SOMETHING with this data instead of just sitting on it. ---
**Author:** ![Zenster](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/cdc98d/32.png) [@Zenster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Zenster)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/7 "2003-08-08T18:21:56Z")
Government by intimidation, what a novel concept. Didn’t we just spend **five fucking decades** locked in a Cold War fighting to end this club-wielding style of government? Blurring the separation of church and state, disenfranchising the entire gay population, alienating our global partners, eroding civilian liberties, impeding stem cell research, committing us to oil dependency … How has this one administration managed to do so much harm in such a short while? We need to get these morons out of office immediately. ---
**Author:** ![GaWd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/f08c70/32.png) [@GaWd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GaWd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/8 "2003-08-08T18:38:25Z")
Tell you what, Zenster- You catch the president administering fellatio to Cheney and you’ve got yourself a winner. He’ll be moved out of the office in a week or less… Sam ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/9 "2003-08-08T18:42:02Z")
_Which_ morons, Zenster? Could you be more specific? ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 6:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/10 "2003-08-08T18:45:48Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Zenster \* > Didn’t we just spend **five fucking decades** locked in a Cold War fighting to end this club-wielding style of government? > > Blurring the separation of church and state, disenfranchising the entire gay population, alienating our global partners, eroding civilian liberties, impeding stem cell research, committing us to oil dependency … As with everything from this Administration, “it’s only bad when _other people_ do it.” ---
**Author:** ![Chefguy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chefguy/32/138_2.png) [@Chefguy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chefguy)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/11 "2003-08-08T19:10:04Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by UncleBeer \* > \*\*_Which_ morons, Zenster? Could you be more specific? \*\* Ooh, ooh, let me: how about the pre-2000-let’s-get-Iraq-and-divvy-up-the-oil-cartel of Cheney, Rumsfeldt, et al? **gaWd & Bayonet** Were Ashcroft not what he is, this action would probably not cause a ripple. As it is, he was and is the architect of Patriot Acts I & II. He saw opportunity in 9/11 and pounced on it with one of the most egregious pieces of law ever introduced to Congress, betting rightly that an outraged and wounded country would accept it with nary a whimper. He espouses the invasion of privacy merely for information’s sake, and nearly any means to reach an end. For me and many others, this is an ominous trend and an unacceptable trampling of the basic freedoms our country is based upon. Oh…and I rant because I can, and you’re right, it _is_ cathartic and helps keep my blood pressure under control. ---
**Author:** ![CTB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CTB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CTB)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/12 "2003-08-08T19:15:51Z")
State’s rights my ass. How can you Republicans out there (the real ones) support these partially gelatinated bovine cum stains you call an administration. IANACS (I am not a constitutional scholar) but wouldn’t the separation of powers suggest that it is none of the legislature’s fucking business what kind of sentencing takes place in response to the laws that they pass, as long as the sentnces remain in some designated range? Isn’t that why we have judges in the process, so that they can use their knowledge and discretion as the case warrants? ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/13 "2003-08-08T19:18:29Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Chefguy \* > \*\ ***gaWd & Bayonet** Were Ashcroft not what he is, this action would probably not cause a ripple. As it is, he was and is the architect of Patriot Acts I & II. He saw opportunity in 9/11 and pounced on it with one of the most egregious pieces of law ever introduced to Congress, betting rightly that an outraged and wounded country would accept it with nary a whimper. He espouses the invasion of privacy merely for information’s sake, and nearly any means to reach an end. For me and many others, this is an ominous trend and an unacceptable trampling of the basic freedoms our country is based upon. > > Oh…and I rant because I can, and you’re right, it _is_ cathartic and helps keep my blood pressure under control. \*\* Well, PA I was reviewed and passed by Congress, so Ashcroft certainly had some help. Did PA II pass yet? I thought it was just vaporware, as it were, right now. And I figured you were just venting, carry on. ---
**Author:** ![Larry\_Mudd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f14d63/32.png) [@Larry\_Mudd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Larry_Mudd)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/14 "2003-08-08T19:21:26Z")
Don’t forget [rooting out pornography](http://www.latimes.com/news/custom/showcase/la-fi-obscene8aug08.story). > [@](#): > > The Justice Department on Thursday charged a North Hollywood wholesaler of adult films with violating federal obscenity laws, launching the first of what it promised would be a wave of criminal cases against purveyors of pornography. > > […] > > “Today’s indictment marks an important step in the Department of Justice’s strategy for attacking the proliferation of adult obscenity,” Ashcroft said. The department will “continue to focus our efforts on targeted obscenity prosecutions that will deter others from producing and distributing obscene material.” ---
**Author:** ![Count\_Blucher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@Count\_Blucher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Count_Blucher)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/15 "2003-08-08T19:23:49Z")
The only way to stop John Ashcroft is for people to get up off their asses November 4th this year and November 8th next year. Before work. After work. Call in Sick if you have to. But VOTE!!! The cost of ending the Occupation of America is your vote and your diligence. Lets show them a vote margin that even They can’t steal. ---
**Author:** ![bayonet1976](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/77aa72/32.png) [@bayonet1976](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bayonet1976)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/16 "2003-08-08T19:24:16Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by CTB \* > **State’s rights my ass. How can you Republicans out there (the real ones) support these partially gelatinated bovine cum stains you call an administration.** I believe, since the article talks about “federal sentencing guidelines”, that the memo refers to federal, not state judges, which would be entirely within the province of the federal government. ---
**Author:** ![UncleBeer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/977dab/32.png) [@UncleBeer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UncleBeer)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/17 "2003-08-08T19:37:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Ooh, ooh, let me: how about the pre-2000-let’s-get-Iraq-and-divvy-up-the-oil-cartel of Cheney, Rumsfeldt, et al? I won’t even pretend that I understand this. Come again? ---
**Author:** ![CTB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e9a140/32.png) [@CTB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CTB)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/18 "2003-08-08T19:49:28Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by bayonet1976 \* > \*\*I believe, since the article talks about “federal sentencing guidelines”, that the memo refers to federal, not state judges, which would be entirely within the province of the federal government. \*\* I stand corrected. Thank you for pointing that out. It does, however, seems to fly in the face of small central government. Is it within the realm of the executive or legislative branch to be concerned with sentncing practices? That seems to be clearly in the judiciary, but again, IANACS. ---
**Author:** ![Tars\_Tarkas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Tars\_Tarkas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tars_Tarkas)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 8:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/19 "2003-08-08T20:42:40Z")
You’re on a list, now, **Chefguy**!!1 ---
**Author:** ![Necros](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/necros/32/11086_2.png) [@Necros](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Necros)\ **Post date:** [August 8, 2003, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859/20 "2003-08-08T20:44:04Z")
**CTB** asked: > [@](#): > > How can you Republicans out there (the real ones) support these partially gelatinated bovine cum stains you call an administration. A lot of us registered Republicans who agreed with the ideas that the party started with, and has given a lot of lip-service in the past to, are simply shouted down by the religious right, and those who desire some sort of strange fascistic state. I vote Libertarian in general elections, retain my Republiucan registration to vote, in vain, against these types in primaries, and will be voting Democratic for the next few elections. We do what we can, but we’re outnumbered by evil morons. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/fuckwit-ashcroft-bludgeons-justice/193859.md?page=2)