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is a right wing extremist. He has consistently demonstated hostility toward
civil rights and voting rights. His nomination is an affront and his
confirmation would be a disaster

As war continues abroad, the attack on our liberties at home marches on.

We who kow firsthand the evils of racial profiling must not tolerate
its use against others in the name of national security. We also know
firsthand the evils of law enforcement choosing their targets based on
advocacy and association.

We hav an attorne gerneral who has abandoned the "attorney" part
of his title. He has cast aside civilian courts in favor of military tribunals. He
has "seized for himself the power to monitor confidential attorney-client
conversations without judicial oversight. The USA Patriot Act allows agents
to seize business records, search a home or get information about a person's
web surfing activity with minimal judicial review. It also allows the FBI to
monitor telephone or email communications without demonstrating probable
cause. ^xxvii

We ought to remind John Ashcroft that the holiday we celebrate each
July 4th commemorates revolutionaries who threw off the chains of
privilege and arrogant power that were then - and remain today - the
primary threats to freedom and human advancement.

If a dead man beat John Ashcroft in 2000, sureley we can beat back his
ideological assault on our Constitution.

Some Many of you remember when Senator Paul Wellstone addressed us at
our convention in Minneapolis. Since last we met, we lost this powerful
voice for the powerless. But he speaks to us still:

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