|
Up to the minute notes on the current state of free thinking and free living: Kentucky moonshine - original analysis and reporting from MoreThings, and all round pop culture museum of sight and sound - photo galleries, mp3 and video downloads.
Al Barger and MoreThings - getting people's goats since 1998.
Live free or die!
----
|
March 01, 2003
Justice Department needs their budget cut
Even though I'm a lifelong big-L Libertarian, I've tried to be sympathetic to the Bush administration and Ashcroft's Justice Department. I'm not real thrilled about everything they do, but they have a tough and critical job to do in tracking down terrorists and preventing further and even worse attacks than 9/11. Idiots who carry on about Ashcroft being a "fascist" or a "nazi" get nothing but the back of my hand.
However, even trying to be sympathetic I must come to the conclusion that the Justice Department simply has TOO MUCH money and manpower, and badly needs to have their budget cut. I reach this conclusion on the basis of THIS STORY and THIS STORY.
This ISOnews story particularly un-thrills me. It strikes me especially wrong to see the feds seize control of a website and turn it into a government propoganda site. They justified this on the basis that the owner trafficked in a few hundred computer chips the government declared illegal on the basis that they could be used to play bootlegged video games. Bogus, bogus, bogus. This site featured speech that the feds (or more particularly the corporations that fund the campaigns of the sponsoring congressmen) didn't like, so they found an excuse to squish it.
The bong story doesn't much impress me either. Again, the feds have seized websites they don't like, and posted government propaganda messages.
"The illegal drug paraphernalia industry has invaded the homes of families across the country without the knowledge of their families," Ashcroft said. What a load of crap. A website doesn't invade your home. You can go look up a site that sells water pipes. That does not constitute any form of "invasion." Even worse: "People selling drug paraphernalia are in essence no different than drug dealers," said John Brown, acting DEA chief. "They are as much a part of drug trafficking as silencers are a part of criminal homicide." Yup, selling pipes is the same thing as being a mob hitman. Can't argue against that.
These stories show pretty bad behavior from the Justice Department in their own right. They are even much worse, however, in light of the problem of terrorism. Mother humping Al Qaeda operatives are apparently absolutely planning an attack on Pearl Harbor -besides their other ongoing efforts- yet John Ashcroft thinks these websites are just (much less worthwhile) uses of limited federal manpower.
How many millions of dollars and thousands of man hours went into these efforts? Obviously they've got more than sufficient resources for everything related to the war on terror. If they've got money to waste on this kind of nonsense, then they have too much money, and they need their budget cut.
posted by Al at 3/01/2003 09:34:00 PM
Link Soup
morethings master
photo gallery index
MP3
new album
releases
lyrics
sammy davis
little richard photos
buddy holly pictures
fats domino images
chuck berry pictures 01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
01/02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12
01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/01/
02/
03/
04/
05/
06/
07/
08/
09/
10/
11/
12/08/
09/
10/
11/
12/
la
24
lucille ball images james
blunt photos
clint eastwood pictures lena
horne images team
america pictures
robert mitchum photos
bruce springsteen pictures
mariah carey pictures
ann coulter photos
george clooney images
loretta lynn pictures
beatles pictures
white stripes pictures
andy griffith pictures
kill bill pictures
beverly hillbillies pictures
robin williams
frank zappa pictures
jerry lee lewis pictures
richard pryor photos
june carter johnny cash pictures
vic mackey shield pictures u2 photos
four seasons images
james cagney images
elvis presley pictures
country music
blog
dolly parton pictures
olsen twins photos
tom petty photos
tori amos pictures
joaquin phoenix images David
Bowie photos
Quills movie images
reese witherspoon pictures rolling
stones photos
fiona apple images kim
novak images ray charles photos marx
brothers pictures
prince rogers nelson pictures blazing
saddles images
sinead o'connor images
eddie murphy photos aretha
franklin photos
south park pictures homer
simpson images
bob dylan pictures elizabeth
taylor photos madonna
images
saturday night live pictures willie
nelson images hee
haw pictures james
brown images pete
townshend photos
tina turner pictures
dixie chicks photos
margaret thatcher photos
guns
n roses pictures
paula abdul pictures
jodie foster photos
amy winehouse
eminem
frank sinatra photos
van
halen images
satan
blondie photos
joni
mitchell pictures
merle haggard
images
rocky horror pictures
monty
python
|
|
