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Author Topic:   No habeas corpus for yooooou, Monsieur!
ozonefiller
Newflake

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posted August 03, 2004 03:52 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ozonefiller     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
This is for Jwhop, since he wouldn't really care, concidering that he lives on a little tiny island somewhere in the South Pacific with the Professor and Mary Ann and the Sport Illustrated Bathing Suit Chicks and his mixed drinks served to him from silver platers off of the top of the heads of little Pygmies, while making business deals to the states on his cell phone!

--------------------------------------------
Get Ready for PATRIOT II

By Matt Welch, AlterNet. Posted April 2, 2003.


While war news dominates, Ashcroft is ready to batten down the homeland's hatches with a draconian list of curbs on civil liberties. Story Tools
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Also in Top Stories

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Naeem Mohaiemen, AlterNet


More stories by Matt Welch



The "fog of war" obscures more than just news from the battlefield. It also provides cover for radical domestic legislation, especially ill-considered liberty-for-security swaps, which have been historically popular at the onset of major conflicts.

The last time allied bombs fell over a foreign capital, the Bush Administration rammed through the USA PATRIOT Act, a clever acronym for maximum with-us-or-against-us leverage (the full name is "Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism").

Remarkably, this 342-page law was written, passed (by a 98-1 vote in the U.S. Senate) and signed into law within seven weeks of the Sept. 11 terrorist attack. As a result, the government gained new power to wiretap phones, confiscate property of suspected terrorists, spy on its own citizens without judicial review, conduct secret searches, snoop on the reading habits of library users, and so General John Ashcroft wants to finish the job. On Jan. 10, 2003, he sent around a draft of PATRIOT II; this time, called "The Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003." The more than 100 new provisions, Justice Department spokesperson Mark Corallo told the Village Voice recently, "will be filling in the holes" of PATRIOT I, "refining things that will enable us to do our job."

Though Ashcroft and his mouthpieces have issued repeated denials that the draft represents anything like a finished proposal, the Voice reported that: "Corallo confirmed ... that such measures were coming soon."

You can read the entire 87-page draft here. Constitutional watchdog Nat Hentoff has called it "the most radical government plan in our history to remove from Americans their liberties under the Bill of Rights." Some of DSEA's more draconian provisions:


Americans could have their citizenship revoked, if found to have contributed "material support" to organizations deemed by the government, even retroactively, to be "terrorist." As Hentoff wrote in the Feb. 28 Village Voice: "Until now, in our law, an American could only lose his or her citizenship by declaring a clear intent to abandon it. But -- and read this carefully from the new bill -- 'the intent to relinquish nationality need not be manifested in words, but can be inferred from conduct.'" (Italics Hentoff's.)


Legal permanent residents (like, say, my French wife), could be deported instantaneously, without a criminal charge or even evidence, if the Attorney General considers them a threat to national security. If they commit minor, non-terrorist offenses, they can still be booted out, without so much as a day in court, because the law would exempt habeas corpus review in some cases. As the American Civil Liberties Union stated in its long brief against the DSEA, "Congress has not exempted any person from habeas corpus -- a protection guaranteed by the Constitution -- since the Civil War."


The government would be instructed to build a mammoth database of citizen DNA information, aimed at "detecting, investigating, prosecuting, preventing or responding to terrorist activities." Samples could be collected without a court order; one need only be suspected of wrongdoing by a law enforcement officer. Those refusing the cheek-swab could be fined $200,000 and jailed for a year. "Because no federal genetic privacy law regulates DNA databases, privacy advocates fear that the data they contain could be misused," Wired News reported March 31. "People with 'flawed' DNA have already suffered genetic discrimination at the hands of employers, insurance companies and the government."


Authorities could wiretap anybody for 15 days, and snoop on anyone's Internet usage (including chat and email), all without obtaining a warrant.


The government would be specifically instructed not to release any information about detainees held on suspicion of terrorist activities, until they are actually charged with a crime. Or, as Hentoff put it, "for the first time in U.S. history, secret arrests will be specifically permitted."


Businesses that rat on their customers to the Feds -- even if the information violates privacy agreements, or is, in fact, dead wrong -- would be granted immunity. "Such immunity," the ACLU contended, "could provide an incentive for neighbor to spy on neighbor and pose problems similar to those inherent in Attorney General Ashcroft's Operation TIPS."


Police officers carrying out illegal searches would also be granted legal immunity if they were just carrying out orders.


Federal "consent decrees" limiting local law enforcement agencies' abilities to spy on citizens in their jurisdiction would be rolled back. As Howard Simon, executive director of Florida's ACLU, noted in a March 19 column in the Sarasota Herald Tribune: "The restrictions on political surveillance were hard-fought victories for civil liberties during the 1970s."


American citizens could be subject to secret surveillance by their own government on behalf of foreign countries, including dictatorships.


The death penalty would be expanded to cover 15 new offenses.


And many of PATRIOT I's "sunset provisions" -- stipulating that the expanded new enforcement powers would be rescinded in 2005 -- would be erased from the books, cementing Ashcroft's rushed legislation in the law books. As UPI noted March 10, "These sunset provisions were a concession to critics of the bill in Congress."

I wouldn't be writing this article today had an alarmed Justice Department staffer not leaked the draft to the Center for Public Integrity in early February. Ashcroft, up to that point, had repeatedly refused to even discuss what his lawyers might be cooking up. But if 10,000 residents of Los Angeles had been vaporized by a "suitcase nuke" in late January, it is reasonable to assume that the then-secret proposal would have been speed-delivered for a congressional vote, even though Congress has not so far participated in drafting the legislation (which is, after all, its Constitutional role).

As a result of the leak, and the ensuing bad press, opposition to the measure has had time to gather momentum before the first bomb was dropped on Saddam's bunker. Some of the criticism has originated from the right side of the political spectrum -- a March 17 open letter to Congress was signed not only by the ACLU and People for the American Way, but the cultural-conservative think tank Free Congress Foundation, the Gun Owners of America, the American Conservative Union, and more.

One does not have to believe that Ashcroft is a Constitution-shredding ghoul to find these measures alarming, improper and possibly illegal. Glancing over the list above, and at the other DSEA literature, I can see multiple ways in which a Fed with a grudge could legally ruin my life. Removing checks and balances on law enforcement assumes perfect behavior on the part of the police.

Safeguarding civil liberties is an unpopular project in the most placid of times. Since Sept. 11, the Bush Administration has shown that it will push the envelope on nearly every restriction it considers to be impeding its prosecution of the war on terrorism. This single-minded drive requires extreme vigilance, before the fog of war becomes toxic.

Detailed critiques of the Patriot II draft have been prepared by the ACLU and the Center for Public Integrity. The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights also has a useful 98-page report on post-Sept. 11 civil liberties, and the Electronic Privacy Information Center maintains an outstanding PATRIOT-related site.

Matt Welch is the Los Angeles correspondent for the National Post, and an editor of the L.A. Examiner. He also maintains a weblog about current events.

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ozonefiller
Newflake

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posted August 03, 2004 04:14 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ozonefiller     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
John Ashcroft
Much like the Nazis in Casablanca, John Ashcroft enjoys a good song -- as long as people remember their place.
Even before September 11, Attorney General John Ashcroft was a disaster waiting to happen. An evangelical fanatic with an agenda, Ashcroft was a man with a dream, or perhaps we should call it a vision, or perhaps it would be more accurately described as an undeniable mandate from God.

After sitting Senator Ashcroft lost his seat to a dead man, Mel Carnahan -- the first time in history this has ever happened -- President George W Bush decided to elevate Ashcroft from his indignity. The collective cringe could be heard all across America, from women, gays, blacks, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists, supporters of civil rights, doctors, people who enjoy having sex, Methodists...

And if there's anything worse than an attorney general with an apocalyptic messiah complex, it's an attorney general with an apocalyptic messiah complex at a time when infidels have declared a holy war on America.

And if there's anything worse than THAT... it would have to be an attorney general who writes inspiratational songs and forces his staff to sing them daily, an attorney general whose father anointed him in a messianic ritual when he took office, an attorney general who drafted the biggest rollback of individual rights in American history and is already planning a sequel...

Jesus Loves Me... But I'm Not So Sure About You
Understanding John Ashcroft starts and probably ends with the Assembly of God, the evangelic Christian sect that spawned him. In his autobiography, Ashcroft said he woke every morning to a "magisterial wake-up call" of his preacher-father's noisy prayers.
Among the Assembly of God's teachings: Homosexuality is evil and causes disease; Christians should not make friends with non-Christians; people should avoid all "sexually suggestive forms of media and entertainment"; speaking in tongues is a necessary component of salvation; Jesus isn't just coming, he's coming to take over the world; mixed-gender dancing leads to evil and should be avoided; and government and laws should be predicated on the teachings of the Christian bible.

Some verbatim quotes from the Church's teachings include:

"The spread of oriental religions and the occult in America has brought with it an increase in demon possession similar to that reported formerly by missionaries on foreign fields. All too often there has been too little teaching in this area."
"All believers who have died will rise from their graves and will meet the Lord in the air, and Christians who are alive will be caught up with them, to be with the Lord forever."
"The Millennial Reign of Christ when Jesus returns with His saints at His second coming and begins His benevolent rule over earth for 1,000 years. At that time many in the nation of Israel will recognize and accept Him as the Messiah, the Savior who died for them and all mankind."
"The Assemblies of God calls youth and singles to refrain from all forms of sexual intimacy until marriage. Such actions would include prolonged sessions of kissing, words of unique expression, actions of intimate caressing, and partial or total nudity."
"Unfortunately, many today mislabel those who speak out against the sin of homosexuality as hate-mongers and prejudiced people seeking to oppress and take away the rights of homosexuals. But these persons view homosexuality from a skewed social perspective devoid of true biblical morality."
"Generally it is risky for Christians to build deep friendships with those who do not share a spiritual bond in Christ. If the friendship has no deep spiritual unity, it is then based on secular values, material interests, and views of the world. In such instances the negative spiritual toll on the Christian is significant as one�s spirit is constantly dulled through repeated exposure to worldviews and ideas. Few Christians are able to live consistent holy lives when unequally yoked in deep friendships with unbelievers."
"The alarming shift from a Judeo-Christian philosophy to secular humanism as the foundation of American government has created profound problems for all Bible-believing churches. More and more, government is defying biblical principles and interpreting sinful behavior as civil rights, i.e. abortion and homosexuality. The church as the body of Christ is obligated to respond."
Principles in Practice
Sure, you might argue that this sort of doctrinal dissection could be applied to just about any religious person in politics, and you'd be right.
Except that unlike most politicians, Ashcroft fervently believes every word of it and is willing to put that belief ahead of political expediency. It's just our luck that the one principled politician in the history of the United States would have to have principles like these.

"The source of freedom and human dignity is the Creator," Ashcroft testified to a Bible-thumping audience of religious broadcasters in February 2002. "The guarding of freedom that God grants is the noble charge of the Department of Justice." No, sir! You won't catch John Ashcroft getting blow jobs from interns in the cloakroom! You're much more likely to find him accepting mandates from God in the sort of ritual one associates with the Freemasons.

Every time Ashcroft has stepped up to take a political office, he has been anointed with holy oil "in the manner of King David," as he specified in his autobiography. His father did the job during his terms as a Senator. On one occasion, the 24-hour quickie mart was out of holy oil, so Crisco was substituted at the last minute. When Ashcroft was selected to be Attorney General, reputed porno-purveyor Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas did the honors.

The religious significance of anointment (particularly in the context of King David) is a little broader than one would like -- the word "Messiah" means "anointed one" in Hebrew, based on Old Testament prophecies, and is also widely considered a signpost relevant to the second coming of Christ.

Another of Ashcroft's highly principled acts involved a crackdown public nudity. The bare-breasted lady in question was a statue of Justice. Ashcroft ordered curtains hung in the Justice Department's press room in order to remove the giant iron nipple which loomed so salaciously, enticingly, over his head. (Good thing Michelangelo's David wasn't looming back there. Sexual provocation and homoerotic subtext is a twofer in the Assembly of God...)

Then there's the music (one of the few "fun" things allowed under Assembly precepts). While in Congress, Ashcroft took part in a barbershop quartet called "The Singing Senators," but his commitment to musical excellence didn't end there.

In the post-September 11 environment, Ashcroft decided to inspire his Justice Department employees by starting each day with song. But such godless standards as the "Star Spangled Banner" just wouldn't suffice. Ashcroft wrote his own song, "Let the Eagle Soar," and forced his hapless subordinates to join him in a daily caterwaul of defiance to such outmoded concepts as "separation of church and state":

"Let the eagle soar,
Like she's never soared before.
From rocky coast to golden shore,
Let the mighty eagle soar.
Soar with healing in her wings,
As the land beneath her sings:
'Only god, no other kings.'
This country's far too young to die.
We've still got a lot of climbing to do,
And we can make it if we try.
Built by toils and struggles
God has led us through."

When interviewed by a British paper, an anonymous Justice Department lawyer summed up her objections to this cruel and unsusual practice thusly: "Have you heard the song? It really sucks."

A Self-Starter
But Ashcroft's crusade doesn't start and end with making an ass out of himself in harmless and amusing ways. The Attorney General is deadly serious about his job.
When the conservative with a messiah complex took office, a lot of people were understandably concerned, based on his track record, that these would be dark years in such areas as abortion rights, gay rights, civil rights, affirmative action, anti-trust, environmental and corporate crime, and so on. Amazingly, Ashcroft managed to give us bigger problems to worry about.

After 9/11, Ashcroft flew like a bat out of heaven to "repurpose" the Justice Department for what he perceived as a new and excitingly apocalyptic reality. Ashcroft's enthusiasm couldn't be contained. He was so eager to start his crusade that he didn't even bother to consult with his boss before making the announcement.

"Defending our nation and defending the citizens of America against terrorist attacks is now our first and overriding priority," Ashcroft said in early November 2001, as he laid out his plan to reorganize the department for the voracious Washington press corps.

The new Justice Department would no longer bother with such trivial tasks as enforcing and interpreting federal law, ensuring the rights of citizens, protecting consumers and keeping rein over big business. Terrorism was now Job One, and Jobs Two through Eleven as well.

A couple days later, CNN's Larry King asked Ashcroft whether he had discussed this sweeping reorganization plan with Bush before announcing it. Whoops! Ashcroft carefully explained that Bush "noted" the announcement after the fact. "I don't want to say that the president and I have conferred about every aspect of this," he said.

And really, why would the president want to micromanage a little project like a total re-invention of America's federal justice system? He's a busy man!

PATRIOT Games
Ashcroft's greatest -- uh, let's go with "highest profile" -- accomplishment to date was the rolling back of individual rights by several decades, under the guise of fighting terrorism.
The provisions of the PATRIOT Act taken as a whole are enough to make civil libertarians scream; the average citizen can usually find at least one provision worthy of alarm. Sponsored by the Bush administration, the PATRIOT act gave sweeping new powers to Ashcroft and his department, including:

The right to freely monitor the activities political and religious groups without a criminal pretext.
New restrictions on open hearings and the public's right to receive information through the Freedom of Information Act.
The ability to stamp down on the dangerous menace of librarians who tip off the media to federal subpoenas of borrowing records.
Permission to monitor conversations between lawyers and suspects, on those increasingly rare occasions that suspects are allowed to have lawyers.
The ability to detain Americans in prison indefinitely without trial or criminal charge.
Not satisfied with the most sweeping police powers ever granted to an Attorney General, Ashcroft set his flunkies to work drafting "PATRIOT II," also known as the "Domestic Security Enhancement Act of 2003," a vast expansion of the vast expansion of his powers. The Justice Department's wish list for PATRIOT II would enhance domestic security by:
Dramatically loosening restrictions on secret government surveillance of citizens, including on phones, e-mail and bank accounts.
Adding a "deport at will" option allowing the Justice Department to circumvent inconvenient immigration laws.
Expanding terrorism investigations to allow the Department to revoke the rights of anyone within about six degrees of separation of an actual terrorist act.
Criminalizing the use of encrypted e-mail.
Increasing the list of federal death-penalty crimes.
Allowing the government to desecrate the graves of deceased victims of terrorism without permission from families.
Restricting access to information about corporate pollution and environmental crimes. This would, incidentally, not only prevent private citizens from researching toxins in their backyards but would even restrict the ability of local governments to get information about environmental crimes in their own neighborhoods.
With all these powers, you would think that Ashcroft would have a long list of convictions to brag about, but no such luck. Americans have yet to see a single conviction in a U.S. court for any crime directly related to the Sept. 11 attack. They nailed one guy for selling false ID's to the hijackers, but he pleaded guilty. Crazy shoe bomber Richard Reid pleaded guilty.
Ashcroft has yet to even convict "20th hijacker" and raving lunatic Zacarias Moussaoui, who is representing himself. Moussaoui's court filings, handwritten on legal paper, tend to run along such lines as "Ashcroft must be sent to Alexandria jail so I can torture him. After all torture is now part of the American way of life," complaints about his lack of Internet access and requests to travel abroad in search of evidence which will exonerate him.

Moussaoui's trial has been indefinitely postponed because the defendent called witnesses who are currently being held incommunicado and without charge by the federal government, which doesn't want to cough them up.

John Ashcroft may be one hell of a singer, but he's been legally outmanuevered by a madman with virtually no knowledge of the U.S. justice system -- even as Ashcroft is angling to ask for an incease in his already unprecedented power to subvert due process and constitutional protections. What's wrong with this picture?


Timeline
9 May 1942 John Ashcroft born, Chicago IL.
1964 Graduates Yale University.
1967 Law degree, University of Chicago.
1984 Elected Governor of Missouri.
Nov 1994 Elected to U.S. Senate.
16 Oct 2000 Governor of Missouri, Mel Carnahan dies in a plane crash.
Nov 2000 John Ashcroft loses his Senate seat to a dead man, Mel Carnahan.
22 Dec 2000 George W Bush announces he will appoint John Ashcroft as U.S. Attorney General.
26 Oct 2001 Ashcroft's Patriot Act I signed into law.
11 Feb 2002 Ashcroft's office confirms that U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft did indeed say, "Islam is a religion in which God requires you to send your son to die for him. Christianity is a faith in which God sends his son to die for you." They appended a claim that this statement is taken out of context, but does not explain in what type of context such a statement might be appropriate or not highly offensive.
7 Feb 2003 Patriot Act II leaked.
15 Sep 2003 In a speech before the National Restaurant Association, Attorney General John Ashcroft declares: "No one believes in our First Amendment civil liberties more than this administration."
4 Mar 2004 Attorney General John Ashcroft is admitted to George Washington University Hospital for treatment of gallstone pancreatitis.

--------------------------------------------

Nahh! None of this we should even worry about, like Jwhop says that America has never promised us any freedom, at least not the continuous kind.

Too bad our forefathers never warned us that the rewards of being an American, was sooner or later going to turn against us in due time!

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ozonefiller
Newflake

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posted August 03, 2004 04:50 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ozonefiller     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Here's some more literature on the topic.

For anyone that lives in America and that really cares and/or the ones that are concidering about coming here to the states(that think that we are "living the high life" NOW),that demand us to share them our beautiful freedoms in this land!
http://www.aclu.org/SafeandFree/SafeandFree.cfm?ID=12161&c=206

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted August 03, 2004 05:04 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
When are you going to respond to my invitation to back up your wild allegations that you have lost rights under the Patriot act.

Chapter and verse Ozone. If as you allege, you have lost Constitutional Rights, you should know which rights and where those rights are found in the Constitution. If you don't know, then you're just repeating BS.

I don't give a flip what some whacko "feels" about the subject. I've read your piece of nonsense and it does NOT directly address any of the enumerated rights contained in the Constitution...which are rights of American Citizens.

You're the one making the allegations and you keep making it. Time to produce.

If I had lost rights, I would know and also know which rights and what secured those rights in the first place.

Hint.....look in the Amendments to the Constitution.

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ozonefiller
Newflake

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posted August 03, 2004 09:03 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ozonefiller     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
*nodding head back and forth*

Amendments to the Constitution,The Privacy Act under State's rights,addressing censorship towards public knowledge of the corporate pollution and environmental crimes which can't insure the safety of Human BEINGS, animals, plants, you know, things that you find "big business" selling in any New York(or well to do up-ity up-ity) department stores, to provide the fact that we never have to fear of being deported from this country from that "6 degrees of separation" of a terrorist act such as like that can range from: speeding, disoderly conduct or just not agreeing to everything that you say to me and sending me to Greenland for just those certain words that I have used onto this website so far, keeping me from over worrying whether or not if I'm wearing enough of clothing when I'm bathing(people like the Chinese leader Hu Jintao can catch us doing otherwise, we pay people for they're nudity, while we manage to do it for free, we would end up giving them a run for they're money that way, the Chinese president will NOT be pleased),analizing the sexuality of Bert and Ernie and this list goes on!

What shall we do??!!!

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jwhop
Knowflake

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From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted August 03, 2004 09:31 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
First things first Oz. Come on over and have a drink....or six and things will look a little different.
http://www.linda-goodman.com/ubb/Forum16/HTML/000192-11.html

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ozonefiller
Newflake

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posted August 03, 2004 11:18 PM     Click Here to See the Profile for ozonefiller     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
So what does any of that have to do with me?

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Randall
Webmaster

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From: The Goober Galaxy
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posted August 04, 2004 12:30 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for Randall     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Not that I agree with it, but habeas corpus is suspended in this country all the time, especially in income tax cases, (not rare like the article states at all), so that leads me to question the other "facts" therein.

------------------
"Never mentally imagine for another that which you would not want to experience for yourself, since the mental image you send out inevitably comes back to you." Rebecca Clark

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jwhop
Knowflake

Posts: 2787
From: Madeira Beach, FL USA
Registered: Apr 2009

posted August 04, 2004 11:39 AM     Click Here to See the Profile for jwhop     Edit/Delete Message   Reply w/Quote
Actually there aren't many facts in that whining rant against Ashcroft.

The most important fact wasn't mentioned at all and that fact is that all legislative actions of Congress and the enforcement by the Executive branch of government are subject to judicial review. Further, all eavesdropping on citizens of the US require a warrant duly executed by oath or affirmation and signed by a court....judge who has appropriate jurisdiction.

Nevertheless Ozone, I would definitely be concerned, IF I had the goods on Bush and Ashcroft like you do. Given your thinking on the matter, they will stop at nothing.

You noticed any strangers nosing around your neck of the woods Ozone?

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