While John Ashcroft covers up the nekkid statues, and Michael Powell freaks out over a glimpse of Janet Jackson's not-really-bare breast on TV, we have stuff like this happening:
Poison Ricin Found in Senate Building Reuters 02/02/04.
Ricin is a poison derived from the pulp left over when castor beans are processed to make castor oil. There is no antidote for ricin, which can kill within 36 to 72 hours of exposure to significant amounts, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
A vial of ricin was delivered to a postal distribution center in Greenville, South Carolina on Oct. 15 in an envelope with a letter threatening to widely release the deadly poison unless new rules for commercial truck drivers were changed. U.S. authorities in January offered a $100,000 reward for information leading to the arrest of whoever sent the toxin.
Say what? Now, maybe I wasn't paying close attention. But I don't remember hearing before about the ricin attack in South Carolina.
Which also reminds me, is our Christian zealot Attorney General, who has been so diligent about hunting down prostitutes in New Orleans (and do you know how hard it is to find hookers in New Orleans?), even going to make a bust in the 2001 anthrax attacks? Much less this latest one on Monday?
Maybe they should investigate the possibility that the stockpiles of WMDs in Texas have something to do with this.
I'm not just being snide about Ashcroft. When is this grim religious fanatic going to start delivering on some successful terrorism prosecutions? It's not a sign of toughness to keep several hundred immigrants, and the occasional American citizen, in jail indefinitely. How about building some cases with enough evidence to actually prosecute somebody? That's the Attorney General's job, not trying to push his whacko religious obsessions onto the country, while trying to dismantle the Constitution as a sideline.
3 comments:
What has Bill Frist been smoking? "There is no cause for alarm" - huh??? I vaguely remember the Greenville story. It made the news for about 15 minutes. I work in a postal facility and we had safety meetings about it.
And yeah, they need to find something to charge these people with or let them go or something. This is ridiculous.
Josh Marshall apparently had a similar reaction to mine when I saw the mention of the October ricin incident: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_02_01.html#002521
- Bruce
I suppose I might have been a bit more clear in this post: Ashcroft's Justice Dept. *has* gotten a few terrorism-related convictions. But they've been pretty small fry. Nothing compared to the kind of cases that Germany, France and Spain have been successfully prosecuting (without an equivalent of the PATRIOT Act, I might add). - Bruce
Post a Comment