JOHN ASHCROFT SETS HIS SIGHTS ON SIN

Re "U.S. Indicts Porn Sellers, Vowing Extensive Attack" and "Ashcroft Objects
to Lenient Jurists," Aug. 8: Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft must be quite bored. How
wonderful that Al Qaeda is a distant memory, the anthrax attacks in the U.S.
are wrapped up, that the Department of Homeland Security has closed shop
because of the arrests of all terrorists posing a domestic threat to the U.S.
and that Saudi links to the World Trade Center attacks have been exposed to a
grateful nation.

Why else would Ashcroft be directing the full weight of the U.S. Justice
Department against a couple of adult video distributors, toward crafting a "hit
list" targeting U.S. judges who aren't as draconian as he'd like or launching
attacks on medical marijuana proponents, who, it should be noted, are helping
terminally ill patients under the auspices of California law. Things must be
very quiet around the offices of the attorney general of the United States for
them to be focusing on such poppycock. Any chance that we can launch a ballot
initiative to remove Ashcroft from office?

Jeff Estes

Long Beach