John Ashcroft

John David Ashcroft (born May 9, 1942) is the current (2001-present) Attorney General of the United States. He is noted for his strong conservative stance on many issues.

Ashcroft was born in Chicago, Illinois where his family had moved to be nearer to the world headquarters of the Assemblies of God[?] church, part of the Pentecostal fundamentalist movement. He was educated in Springfield, Missouri and at Yale University, where he graduated in 1964. He received a J.D.[?] degree from the University of Chicago in 1967 and briefly taught business law at Southwest Missouri State University.

He began his career in Missouri government in 1973. He was Governor of Missouri from 1984 to 1993. He was elected to the Senate from Missouri in 1994. He ran for reelection in 2000 against then-Governor Mel Carnahan[?], who died in an airplane crash about two weeks prior to the election. Due to Missouri state election laws, Mel Carnahan's name could not be removed from the ballot and his wife, Jean Carnahan[?] announced she would serve in his place if he was elected. Carnahan posthumously won the election, and it was widely reported that John Ashcroft was defeated by "a dead man," as Mel Carnahan's name remained on the ballot. It is believed by some, however, that Carnahan may have won the election due to the "sympathy vote." Despite his defeat, Ashcroft was subsequently nominated as Attorney General by George W. Bush in December 2000. Despite a contentious nomination process, he was confirmed by the Senate.

In July of 2002 Ashcroft suggested the creation of Operation TIPS, a proposed domestic program in which government employees would inform on suspicious behaviour they encounter while performing their duties. The program was criticized in the media as an encroachment on the first and fourth amendment; and in fact the United States Postal Service balked at the suggestion, refusing outright to participate. Ashcroft defended the program as a necessary component to the ongoing "war on terrorism" but the proposal was eventually abandoned.

Some have characterized Ashcroft's practice of restricting civil liberties as "Ashcroftism."

The former senator famously once boasted of his conservatism, saying there are two things you find in the middle of the road: "a moderate and a dead skunk," adding he did not want to be either.

Ashcroft once claimed that "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." [1] (http://www.ratical.org/ratville/JFK/JohnJudge/linkscopy/MenOfFaith)