DEBRIS.COMgood for a laugh, or possibly an aneurysm

The official bio of US Attorney General John Ashcroft claims Ashcroft has pledged to “reduce the incidence of gun violence and combat discrimination so no American feels outside the protection of the law.”

Yet Ashcroft is a lifetime member of the National Rifle Association, and once appeared on the cover of the NRA’s magazine, America’s 1st Freedom. The magazine described Ascroft as “a breath of fresh air to freedom-loving gun owners.”

How exactly does arming the populace reduce gun violence? It doesn’t follow. If you wanted to reduce gun violence, it seems to me the first thing you’d do is take away all the damn guns. But Ashcroft opposed a ban on the sale of assault weapons.

According to Vanity Fair, Ashcroft is as dishonest about discrimination as he is about gun control. VF quotes Ashcroft’s interrogation of nominees to the federal courts: “What in the Constitution guarantees rights to homosexuals?” His question seems to imply that gays don’t qualify as Americans — that they’d need to be specifically mentioned in the Constitution, else they don’t inherit the same rights as non-gays. I think it’s safe to say that in Ashcroft’s America, just about all gays would feel “outside the protection of the law.”

Here’s another great quote from the Vanity Fair piece:

When, in 1985, a young man named Paul Offner applied for the job of head of Missouri’s social services, Offner tells me, [then-governor] Ashcroft said, without preamble, “Mr. Offner, let me start by asking you if you have the same sexual preference as most men.”

If that’s not discrimination, then I guess I don’t know what discrimination is.