The Bush Admin. Works Against States' Rights

News and Opinion for Democrats Against Bush -- Part I a

Ashcroft Works Against States' Rights

' Why was Senator Ashcroft so sympathetic to the “states’ rights” cause when it came to issues like the Confederacy and segregation, but when it comes to whether or not a terminal cancer patient ought to be able to ease his pain with a marijuana cigarette, Attorney General Ashcroft won’t let the states govern themselves?'

The Agitator

Ashcroft's Funky Federalism

May 27, 2003

By Radley Balko

To read the complete article, click here-- http://www.theagitator.com/archives/006031.php#006031

Excerpt--

... The problem with Attorney General Ashcroft -- and the reason I write about him today -- is that his record as Attorney General thus far has shown him to be a man completely unsympathetic to the tenets of federalism when they happen conflict with his own, personal values.

This past winter, for example, Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen reported that Ashcroft has specifically charged U.S. Attorneys to aggressively seek the death penalty for capital federal crimes in areas of the country traditionally opposed to capital punishment. ...

Voters in Oregon recently decided that the terminally ill and elderly in that state ought to be permitted to end their own lives through physician-assisted suicide. But Attorney General Ashcroft opposes assisted suicide, and so has taken the state of Oregon to court to assert the supremacy of federal law over the initiative approved by the voters of Oregon. ...

Ashcroft痴 questionable allegiance to federalism has become glaring when it comes to the drug war. ...

John Ashcroft痴 decision to devote considerably large swaths of DOJ time and resources to challenging state drug and assisted-suicide laws he feels are too liberal can稚 be dismissed with the likes of 塗e痴 just doing his job.・ He chose to set examples in California and Oregon because he felt DOJ resources were better utilized challenging those laws than, for example, investigating al-Qaeda sleeper cells. ...

4religious-right.info

The Rise of the Religious Right in the Republican Party:

States' Rights

Nov. 2003

To read the complete article, with links, click here-- http://www.4religious-right.info/states_rights2.htm

Excerpt--

There is an inconsistency from leaders of the Religious Right between a belief in states rights, or minimal federal government, and a drive for control and domination of a nation. As a member of the Federalist Society and leader of the Religious Right, Attorney General John Ashcroft espouses the value of state's rights. His effort to overturn the state of Oregon's Assisted Suicide Law, however, demonstrates how quickly he will intervene in a State's democratically legislated law when this law conflicts with his religious beliefs. Much of the work of the Justice Department is now focused on overturning state laws. ...

We can't talk about John Ashcroft without talking about civil liberties. People for the American Way has this report on Ashcroft's tour in defense of the Patriot Act. ...

The Ashcroft Justice Department not only demands the harshest prison terms, but actually goes out of its way to track federal judges who do not give them. At the same time state lawmakers are following the opposite track, openly advocating less time for the same crime and giving judges more discretion in choosing punishments. ...

Ashcroft is interfering with the right of states to not use the death penalty. ....

While advocating local control and minimal federal government, churches of the Religious Right are using a federal mandate to bypass local zoning ordinances. Hundreds of new megachurches are springing up in suburbs across the country in conflict with local zoning laws. ...

This article also includes: "States Rights and the Environment" from the Los Angeles Times: by staff writer, Elizabeth Shorgun

http://www.4religious-right.info/states_rights2.htm

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